Milei's Far-right Tour Turns Argentina into Trump’s Regional Outpost

By Al Mayadeen English

Source: The Guardian

25 Jul 2026 22:29

Argentina's Javier Milei is meeting Latin America's far-right leaders, prompting analysts to say he's positioning himself as a "proxy" for Donald Trump.

Argentine President Javier Milei, who has a well-documented habit of skipping regional summits, is instead setting out this weekend on a tour of Latin America's far right, The Guardian reported.

The itinerary begins in Brazil, where he will appear at the launch of Senator Flavio Bolsonaro's presidential campaign against leftist incumbent Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva ahead of October's vote, before moving on to Keiko Fujimori's inauguration in Peru, Abelardo de la Espriella's inauguration in Colombia, and a meeting with Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa.

Milei has described the tour as the work of a president "willing to open up to the world" and eager to triple Argentina's trade, but analysts are skeptical.

Sociologist Juan Gabriel Tokatlian of Universidad Torcuato Di Tella told The Guardian that Milei's real interests lie with "figures from the world of big tech and the far right," adding that trade talks are not seriously on the table in either case.

Positioning himself as regional standard-bearer

While Milei's approval ratings at home have been sliding, far-right and right-wing candidates have swept all seven presidential elections held across the region since Donald Trump returned to the White House.

Cristobal Rovira Kaltwasser, a professor at the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, told The Guardian that Milei, as the longer-serving figure among these leaders, is angling to present himself as head of this bloc.

'Proxy for Trump'

But according to Tokatlian, the region's new crop of right-wing leaders view Milei less as a boss and more as a stand-in for Washington. "All these right-wing leaders see Milei as a kind of proxy for Trump, who is the one who is really in charge," he said, arguing there is little appetite among them for Argentine leadership.

Whatever informal competition exists for Trump's favor, he told The Guardian, will likely be won by whichever government offers the most on drug trafficking, migration, military cooperation, and pushing back against China's regional influence.

Washington's security architecture

That competition plays out most visibly through security policy.

Trump unveiled the Shield of the Americas in March, a counter-cartel coalition limited to far-right governments aligned with him. Left-run states central to regional drug production and trafficking, including Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, were left out.

That may soon change in Colombia's case, as president-elect De la Espriella has said his government will join the initiative and host a regional office in Medellín.

Built on loyalty to Trump

Benjamin Gedan of the Stimson Center's Latin America program told The Guardian that Milei has consistently taken care to appear deferential toward Trump rather than compete with him.

Meanwhile, researcher Ariel Goldstein of the University of Buenos Aires told The Guardian that Milei is still the frontrunner for Washington's attention, having spent years cultivating a relationship of "friendship and subordination" with the US.

Milei was the first foreign leader to visit Trump after his reelection and has copied several of his policies, including withdrawing Argentina from the World Health Organization and tightening immigration rules.

A $40 billion US bailout last year is widely credited with helping his party in Argentina's midterm elections, even as inflation eases while unemployment, informality, and corruption scandals weigh on his standing ahead of next year's vote.

Brazil as the ultimate prize

For Goldstein, Brazil remains the biggest target for both men.

Milei had sought to visit former president Jair Bolsonaro, now under house arrest following a coup conviction, but a judge denied the request. Notably, Milei has never held bilateral talks with Lula.

"A Bolsonaro victory would be hugely important to Milei and Trump because it would allow them to reorganize the whole region around an axis of subordination to the US," Goldstein told The Guardian.