Mario Santucho: «Milei’s Greatest Strength Lies Not in Argentina, but in the United States»

Original article: Mario Santucho: “La principal fortaleza de Milei no está en Argentina, sino en Estados Unidos” 

In the latest episode of the program Sentido Común, Javier Pineda, director of El Ciudadano, spoke with Mario Santucho, director of Revista Crisis, about the political situation in Argentina, the crisis under President Javier Milei, and future alternatives.

The interview began by contrasting the image circulated in parts of the international media with the narrative promoted by the government of Javier Milei, which often highlights a significant reduction in poverty and improved economic indicators, with the reality that, according to various critical sectors, Argentina is currently facing.

In this context, Santucho argued that there is a significant gap between that narrative and the reality he observes in the country. He believes the government is grappling with issues of political legitimacy and exhibits what he described as a «pathetic» economic performance. While he acknowledged that Milei’s administration has managed to decrease inflation from the levels inherited from the previous government, he asserted that it remains far from being controlled and continues to stay at high levels by international standards.

According to the director of Revista Crisis, Argentina’s economic reality is reflected in factory closures, rising unemployment, and the increasing cost of living—factors that, he pointed out, make it challenging for many individuals to make ends meet with their incomes.

Furthermore, Santucho noted that Javier Milei’s victory can partly be explained by the wear and failure of Alberto Fernández’s government, but also due to the progressive sectors’ inability to offer a credible alternative to the growing social discontent.

In this setting, he emphasized that Milei successfully channeled the public’s discontent and frustration through a message promising a break from the system. In his view, the «chainsaw» became an effective symbol as it represented the promise to dismantle an order that many considered exhausted, allowing an ultraliberal proposal to take up the anti-system space that, he claimed, the left failed to challenge.

Regarding his perspective on the right in Argentina, Santucho stated that there is currently an internal struggle marked by the resurgence of traditional sectors tied to macrismo and tensions with Milei’s government.

While he acknowledged that the underlying causes of that conflict are still not completely clear, he hypothesized that part of the fracture is due to the growing influence and intervention of the United States in Argentine politics and economics, a situation that seems to be causing discomfort among local economic power sectors who initially supported the president.

In this scenario, Santucho believes that Milei’s primary strength is the explicit backing from the United States, which he characterized as unprecedented due to its level of involvement in the politics of the neighboring country.

Despite this, he pointed out that the situation remains open and could even lead to a profound crisis for the government if social protests gain strength and if divisions within the ruling coalition continue to deepen.

Additionally, Santucho expressed concern for the future of democratic rules in the region and questioned how far ultraright sectors would be willing to respect power alternation in the event of an electoral defeat.

For the director of Revista Crisis, the continent is undergoing a phase of weakening traditional democratic consensus, while potential alternatives within the right, such as a return to macrismo or the rise of Patricia Bullrich, would not necessarily represent a shift away from the project driven by Milei.

Conversely, when asked about the National Popular Project, Santucho claimed that Peronism is experiencing a significant political defeat that transcends the electoral loss to Milei.

In his opinion, one of the events that best illustrates this scenario is the situation of former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, whose conviction and disqualification from competing electorally highlighted, he argued, the movement’s current weakness in politically responding to this process.

In this context, he highlighted Axel Kicillof as the main opposition figure looking towards the upcoming elections. For Santucho, Kicillof is a leader with a critical stance on neoliberalism, ready to openly confront the current government.

Santucho further suggested that any potential renewal of transformative projects is unlikely to arise from traditional political structures. In his view, building an alternative for change will depend more on the emergence of new social subjects and new forms of organization and struggle capable of challenging the current model.

Finally, regarding Revista Crisis’s view on the role of media in maintaining a dual dimensionality—on one hand, fostering critical thought, and on the other, feeding media deployment on social networks—Santucho noted two distinct planes, the first linked to a strategic temporality that maintains critical thinking and the construction of new political imaginations, and the second connected to acting within concrete debates and conflicts.

On the first point, he emphasized the need to keep critical thought alive to construct new political imaginations that can offer alternatives to the current order.

In this sense, he stated that a central task is to understand how power structures truly operate, identify the actors that uphold them, and comprehend how they influence the State and political decisions.

According to the director of Revista Crisis, one of the significant weaknesses of recent progressive projects was their insufficient understanding of these powers, which ultimately hindered deeper transformations once they came to power. Consequently, he defended the importance of political research and journalism as tools for analyzing power relations beyond immediate contingency.

Regarding the second point, he asserted the necessity of intervening in the realm of current events and concrete disputes. As an example, he highlighted the experience of «Police Map«, an initiative fostered by Revista Crisis that seeks to monitor the actions of security forces and document incidents of repression using digital tools and investigative techniques.

For Santucho, these types of projects make visible how technologies and social networks can be used not only for information circulation but also to strengthen social organization and citizen control.

Ultimately, he indicated that—according to his view—the contemporary political dispute also hinges on the ability to appropriate these digital spaces and utilize them collectively to counter the influence of the ultraright and generate new forms of political action.

Next, you can watch the complete interview with Mario Santucho on Sentido Común:

El Ciudadano.