Days after taking office as Argentina's new president, Javier Milei must face an interesting payment as part of a debt that his country contracted in 2018 with the International Monetary Fund (IMF). On December 21, the new government must pay 900 million dollars, further complicating its financial situation. In this context, María Elvira Salazar (R-FL) began campaigning to help the libertarian negotiate the payment.
To do this, the Republican congresswoman wrote to the Secretary of the Treasury, Janet Yellen, and the Managing Director of the IMF, Kristalina Georgieva. Regarding the latter, she asked that the organization she directs "offer leniency and patience while the Milei Administration begins its work of fixing Argentina's economy."
"President Milei took office last December 10, which poses the immediate challenge of finding a way to credibly guarantee to the IMF that Argentina will restore order to its public finances. Although Milei has taken immediate measures to address Argentina's budget deficits, 11 days are not enough for his policies to take effect," she wrote in a statement.
Argentina debe pagar la próxima semana $900 millones de dólares de su deuda, pero el kirchnerismo la dejó en bancarrota. Pedí a la Administración Biden y al FMI que negocien con Milei ese pago.
El nuevo Gobierno necesita nuestra ayuda. pic.twitter.com/teRXWhwNt2
— María Elvira Salazar 🇺🇸 (@MaElviraSalazar) December 13, 2023
"The United States must recognize this problem and help the new president of our old Latin American ally to carry out the change that the Argentine people voted for," continued Salazar, who attended the inauguration of President Milei in Buenos Aires, where she also took the opportunity to speak with Voz Media about the future of Argentina, Nicolás Maduro and the relationship between the United States and Latin America.
During the interview, she assured that the election of the libertarian economist meant a "new dawn" for the South American country. "Argentina could be one of the top 20 countries in the world. It has it all. It has intelligent people, it has natural resources, how can it not be there. It is a new dawn, may God bless you," she added.
Milei's first economic measures to get Argentina back on track
The minister of economy of the new government, Luis Toto Caputo, detailed on Monday the first ten financial measures to face the local crisis:
- Stop renewal of state employment contracts that are valid for more than one year.
- Suspend the official guidelines (money the state sends to the media) for one year.
- Go from 18 ministries to 9 and from 106 secretariats to 54, reducing federal political positions by 34%.
- Minimize discretionary transfers from the federal government to the provinces.
- Not initiate new public works bid contracts and cancel those not yet started.
- Reduce energy and transportation subsidies.
- Maintain the "Promote Work" plans and strengthen social policies "without intermediaries."
- Create an "honest" official exchange rate of 800 pesos per dollar.
- Replace the SIRA system for imports with one that does not require prior license approval.
- Double the Universal Child Allowance and increase the Alimentar Card by 50% to socially contain the most vulnerable sectors in the face of the adjustment process.
