Irina Santesteban | Liberation Party (Argentina)
I come from Argentina, a country with a rich history dating back to the struggles for its first independence from Spanish colonialism, led by our liberator José de San Martín. The Argentine people have been protagonists in heroic popular struggles, giving birth to a strong and organized labor movement that won social and democratic rights. We have also fought against military dictatorships that represented the oligarchic and business classes, with the support of U.S. imperialism, which, since the Monroe Doctrine, has considered Latin America its “backyard.”
Today, Argentina is going through a disastrous period under the fascist government of Javier Milei, who came to power almost two years ago by popular vote. It is not the first time that we have had a “constitutional” government that imposes austerity measures, curtails popular and democratic rights, represses dissent, and hands over state-owned companies and our sovereignty. Carlos Menem, in the 1990s, boasted of his “carnal relations” with the U.S.
However, Milei has reached limits never before seen in Argentina: he is a strategic partner of U.S. imperialism and an unconditional ally of the Zionist state of Israel—both responsible for the genocide against the Palestinian people.
Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Front
For years, the Liberation Party has advocated the need for an Anti-Imperialist Front—not only within our country, to break the chains of dependence, but also at the international level—to confront U.S. imperialism, its European allies, NATO, and Israel.
For two years, we have been promoting, though often in isolation, the importance of building an Anti-Imperialist and Anti-Fascist Front in our country and also globally. Fascism and the far-right forces operate in coordination with economic, political, and military power groups to subjugate peoples and eliminate the emergence and struggle of resistance organizations. They do so by committing genocide, as Israel has done in the Palestinian territory of Gaza, and also by other methods that are less “criminal” but equally harmful to the people.
Many progressive and even left-wing organizations in Argentina refuse to characterize Milei’s government as fascist. According to the definition of the Third Communist International in 1935, fascism in power is the open and terrorist dictatorship of the most reactionary, most chauvinistic, and most imperialist elements of finance capital. It uses nationalist variants, the support of discontented middle classes, and declassed sectors of the popular classes. Fascism envisions a totalitarian and anti-democratic form of government and promotes racism, anti-communism, and fear and hatred toward those who are different or who oppose it.
Twenty-first-century fascism has found new forms of organization, propaganda, and brainwashing through social media, which, in a globalized world, have a far greater impact.
The Liberation Party has a clear stance against fascism, opposing those who underestimate the danger of governments such as Milei’s. We describe him as fascist because he surrenders our sovereignty, resources, and territory to the voracity of corporations and imperialism; governs authoritatively through decrees without respecting the separation of powers; vetoes laws that benefit the people; and brutally represses protests by pensioners, workers, students, scientists, indigenous peoples, women, and diverse groups—in short, all those who oppose his plan of destruction, hunger, repression, and dependency.
Milei has called for our country to join NATO (it has been a special non-NATO partner since the Menem era), has expressed his intention to allow the installation of a U.S. Southern Command military base in Ushuaia, in the south of our country—a strategic location facing Antarctica and the bi-oceanic canal—and intends to sign a Free Trade Agreement with the U.S.
In terms of human rights, he denies the crimes against humanity committed by the military-civilian dictatorship, closes memorial sites, endorses Israel’s genocide against the Palestinian people, denigrates “leftists” and feminism, and promotes hate speech against the LGBT community.
Foreign Debt
Argentina’s subjugation to imperialism is clearly demonstrated by the drama of its foreign debt, described as “odious” in modern doctrine because it was incurred behind the backs of the people and constitutes a mechanism of economic and financial domination with political conditions. The Argentine foreign debt contracted with the IMF by Presidents Mauricio Macri (2018) and Javier Milei today is also illegitimate because it did not follow constitutional procedures, which require approval by the National Congress. Neither Macri nor Milei did so.
Argentina’s total gross debt now stands at $454.234 billion, and during this government’s term it has increased by 22.5 percent in less than two years. The commitments made by former President Mauricio Macri in 2018, legitimized during the government of Alberto Fernández, Cristina Kirchner, and Sergio Massa, and the recent ones made by Milei, are unpayable despite the cuts and adjustments implemented by this government. The usurious interest rates are impossible to meet, even for a country as wealthy as Argentina, and they increase the debt until it becomes a spiral from which the only way out is to repudiate the illegitimate debt.
For this reason, the Liberation Party is part of the Self-Convened Movement for the Suspension of Foreign Debt Payments, together with other organizations and Nobel Peace Prize winner Adolfo Pérez Esquivel.
The interest rates imposed by the IMF and other international organizations, accepted by successive governments and by Milei, are usurious: up to 10 percent per annum in dollars (above the 3–5 percent paid by developed countries) and more than 50 percent per annum for debt in pesos.
The consequences of these adjustment policies for our people are catastrophic: 223,537 layoffs in the formal sector and an even greater number of precarious (informal) jobs lost. A total of 15,564 companies have closed, exceeding the number that shut down during the Covid-19 pandemic. In the state sector, which has been particularly hard hit by Milei’s “chainsaw,” there have been 78,000 redundancies.
Falkland Islands
Argentina has suffered imperialist occupation by the United Kingdom in the Falkland Islands since 1833, with a brief interregnum in 1982, when the islands were temporarily recovered, ending with Argentina’s defeat at the hands of England, the U.S., and NATO. Our fishing resources and oil are being plundered there.
Sovereignty over our islands is a legitimate claim, recognized by the United Nations General Assembly through Resolution 2065, voted unanimously by its member countries in 1965. Since then, there have been 10 more resolutions by the General Assembly and more than 40 by the UN Decolonization Committee.
The United Kingdom not only refuses to comply with its obligation to resolve the dispute by peaceful means and to end colonialism, but also reinforces the occupation through unilateral measures, military presence, and operational areas, exploring and exploiting renewable and non-renewable natural resources that belong to our country.
It is a colonial enclave and a NATO military base, strategically located in the South Atlantic, with access to the interoceanic canal and Antarctica, where there are also vast reserves of water, minerals, and oil.
The resources generated by the Falklands are a source of income for British and multinational companies: fishing permits for foreign fleets, port administration and control, and offshore oil exploitation in partnership with the Israeli company Navitas Petroleum, among others.
Milei, who went so far as to subscribe to the colonizer’s theory legitimizing the “self-determination” of the Kelpers (the British occupying population), made a lukewarm claim to sovereignty on 24 September at the UN General Assembly.
This president has publicly expressed his admiration for Margaret Thatcher, the British prime minister who ordered the sinking of the ARA General Belgrano outside the exclusion zone in 1982, causing the deaths of 323 Argentine sailors, most of them young conscripts.
For the Liberation Party, the Malvinas cause is inalienable, and only a government that represents and defends the interests of the people and national sovereignty will be able to recover our legitimate sovereignty over those islands—with the support of the peoples of our Great Latin American Homeland, the Third World, and other countries.
That is why we are fighting for the construction of an Anti-Imperialist Front that will promote a program with strategies and forms of struggle for their recovery, beginning with the imposition of sanctions on companies operating in our country, such as the Anglo-Dutch Shell, which this government has allowed to enter the oil pipeline business in the Vaca Muerta Sur field in the province of Neuquén.
Venezuela
In the homeland of Simón Bolívar, whose people we salute, U.S. imperialism has been trying for years to overthrow the Bolivarian government—first against Commander Hugo Chávez, including a coup d’état in April 2002, and since his death, against President Nicolás Maduro—using every possible form of destabilization.
Now, under the pretext of fighting drug trafficking, the Trump administration has mobilized naval destroyers, a nuclear submarine, aircraft, missile-equipped ships, and 4,500 marines mobilized by Admiral Holsey’s Southern Command, with the clear intention of attacking Venezuela, even though its government has won elections confirming its popular support.
At the same time, they continue to threaten the Cuban Revolution with their criminal blockade, as well as Nicaragua and governments that do not follow Washington’s mandates—such as Mexico, Colombia, and Honduras—whose governments, though not revolutionary, are now taking a course independent of imperial dictates.
In addition to its undeniable intention to overthrow the legitimate government of Maduro, the U.S. seeks to prevent political and commercial relations between the governments of the region and the People’s Republic of China.
The peoples of Latin America and the Caribbean must not ignore these threats and aggressions. In this regard, we must reaffirm the CELAC declaration, which proclaimed Latin America a “Zone of Peace.” It is necessary to confront the interventionist and militaristic policies of U.S. imperialism and its lackeys in the region—such as the Milei government—which has authorized by decree the entry of U.S. troops to carry out “Tridente” military exercises at the naval bases of Mar del Plata, Ushuaia, and Puerto Belgrano.
We congratulate President Nicolás Maduro, his government, and the Venezuelan people because, in the face of the threat of invasion, they have reacted correctly: denouncing the aggression and calling for the mass enlistment of volunteers for the Bolivarian National Militias, which operate under the direction of the Bolivarian National Armed Forces.
Trump’s accusation against Maduro of being the leader of the alleged “Cartel of the Suns” is not even believed by themselves, when Venezuela is not listed among countries that produce, distribute, or receive drugs. On the contrary, it is the United States that is the largest consumer and launderer of drug money in the world.
The illegal detention of fishing boats by the U.S. Navy in the Caribbean Sea is a ridiculous attempt to generate incidents to justify a larger-scale military invasion or aggression that seeks two objectives: to destroy the Bolivarian government and to seize its vast oil reserves—the largest in the world.
We propose that this conference declare its support for:
1. The Venezuelan government and people against the threats of invasion and aggression by U.S. imperialism.
2. The repudiation of the criminal blockade against Cuba imposed by the U.S. since 1962; and the recovery of Guantanamo from the hands of imperialism.
3. Solidarity with the struggles of the Argentine people against the austerity measures of Javier Milei, an ally of the U.S. and Israel; for the non-payment of the odious and illegitimate foreign debt.
4. Support for the presidential campaign of comrade Eduardo Artés in Chile.
5. Denounce and repudiate the genocide suffered by the Palestinian people at the hands of Israel, with the support of the U.S. Freedom for the members of the Global Sumud Flotilla. Cease the bombing of Gaza. For a free Palestine, from the river to the sea! Promote the severing of relations with Israel by all governments.
6. Congratulate the government of the People’s Republic of China on the 76th anniversary of the triumph of the People’s Revolution led by Mao Tse Tung; and support the Chinese government in its rejection of the tariff war waged by Donald Trump.
7. Denounce the government of Volodymyr Zelensky in its NATO war against Russia.
8. Reject the increase in military budgets of European countries, formalized by U.S. pressure within NATO.
9. Condemn the rise of neo-Nazi and fascist parties in Europe, such as Vox in Spain, Alternative for Germany, and similar parties.
10. Call for the closure of more than 700 U.S. military bases and the withdrawal of all troops from South Korea, Japan, Germany, Spain, the Falkland Islands, Colombia, Guantanamo, and other countries where they are stationed.