The Latin American Report # 515

Elon Musk retweeted a post yesterday celebrating the macroeconomic achievements of the harsh fiscal adjustment implemented by Javier Milei's government. He did so to indirectly criticize his (apparently) former ally Donald Trump, with whom he is engaged in a rare public dispute after serving in the administration. Milei, on a tour of Italy, held a meeting today with Pope Leo XIV, where they discussed “the fight against poverty and the commitment to social cohesion” and a potential trip by the Supreme Pontiff to Argentina. Milei's gifts to Leo XIV are quite a message for a clergyman who knows the region: two books by the ultra-liberal economist Jesús Huerta Soto (Statism and the Economy and Pandemia y dirigismo), and Fatal Arrogance by Friedrich Hayek. Milei had a complicated history with the late Pope Francis, fraught with harsh offenses, but Francis was well above such circumstances: the Argentine did not allow the left in his country to use him for campaigning against the ultra-liberal leader, and allowed him to reinvent himself and rework his discourse toward him.

What Musk retweeted 👇

_{Milei with Leo XIV (source).}

The debate on poverty

The Pink House is boasting data reflecting a decrease in poverty and indigence. Some analyses are purely uncritical praise in this regard, almost propaganda: “Milei is managing to end general poverty at all levels,” even “surprising” UNICEF in terms of child poverty, I read in the Spanish newspaper La Razón. El Economista presents a similar view: “the real economy is flying,” it states. However, other analyses reflect that “[there are] reasons to argue that the decline in poverty is being overestimated in a context of significant changes in the price system that are not reflected in greater consumption capacity among poor households.” “This explains why, although poverty and indigence levels are similar to those of a year ago, multidimensional poverty, food insecurity, inability to access medicines or health services, debt defaults, and inability to repair housing continued to increase,” concluded the Argentine Social Debt Observatory of the Argentine Catholic University in a report published weeks ago. “More and more people are rummaging through trash cans,” a resident of the Argentine capital who engages in this unfortunate practice told Reuters, while middle- and lower-class sectors turn to eggs as an alternative to meat and dairy products. In the province of Córdoba, in almost half of all families, at least one member skips breakfast, lunch, or dinner due to lack of resources.

Quick regional notes

• The 3.5% tax on remittances promoted by the Trump administration, if finally approved by the Senate, could mean a cut of billions of dollars to Central American economies. Also, for Mexico, although there is more internal economic cushion for society, in this case. For example, in Honduras, according to EFE, remittances account for almost 27% of the country's GDP. At the same time, other Central American nations, such as Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua, are also threatened by this Republican White House initiative.
  

• The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency carried out at least three major raids against immigrants in Los Angeles on Friday, amid strong protests from activists opposed to the Trump administration's efforts to push for mass deportations. The FBI and DEA were involved in the operations. “What we are seeing is a coordinated armed and terrorist attack, and I am not exaggerating with these descriptions because the aim is to create terror by arresting (immigrant) workers,” said the leader of an organization that warns about ICE operations.
  

The FOX's perspective 👇