Chilean President Gabriel Boric spoke by phone this Tuesday with the elected president of Argentina, the far-right economist Javier Milei. From La Moneda they have reported that they held a “frank conversation in which the well-being of both peoples was put first.” The left-wing leader Boric announced this morning that his team is talking about possible attendance at the Argentine’s inauguration on December 10 and responded to pressure from a sector of the right to confirm: “I don’t need anyone here.” Tell me what I have to do or not.” Asked about when he will fill the vacancy at the Chilean embassy in Buenos Aires, Boric said that he will choose an ambassador “with the best skills,” and warned: “But I appoint the ambassador, not the other side.”
“The Chilean people and the Argentine people are brother people,” stated the Chilean president, “therefore, my duty as President of the Republic is that, regardless of the political differences that undoubtedly exist between the elected president and the government in office in Chile, our peoples and countries have high-minded State relations and we continue to promote integration at the highest level.”
After Milei’s victory, Boric congratulated his new Argentine counterpart on social media: “As President of Chile, I will work tirelessly to keep our sister nations united and collaborating for the well-being of all.” Attention was focused on the president’s reaction not only because the elected president of Argentina is at the opposite end of his ideological stance, but they had had some friction this year. On a visit by Milei to Santiago last July, the Argentine, as a presidential candidate, blurted out at a conference: “Among the leftists they come together, that is, among the impoverishers they come together, and just as we hope to get rid of the Kirchnerist plague (… .) I hope that you have the happiness and height to also be able to get rid of this impoverisher Boric.”
Chilean Foreign Minister Alberto Van Klaveren himself intervened and asked Milei to restrict his campaign to Argentina and to observe “minimal respect” for Chilean authorities and institutions, starting with the president. When Boric was elected in December 2021, the Argentine ultra published on his social networks: “Horrible news.”
Milei’s victory coincides with the fact that the Chilean embassy in Argentina is vacant. Last September, the then communist ambassador Bárbara Figueroa left her position to take over as general secretary of her formation. Temporarily taking her place was Alberto Rodríguez, the embassy’s chargé d’affaires, who at the end of October was named ambassador to Morocco.
A sector of the opposition led by senators Rojo Edwards, of the Republican Party, and Francisco Chahuán of Renovación Nacional, of the traditional right, has pressed for the future representative to be a career diplomat and not have any political militancy. Boric said that “we are going to do this based on the joint interests of Chile and Argentina, and let there be no doubt that, regardless of the differences, these political differences cannot cloud us from the fact that our integration between both countries is absolutely necessary.” and it is what I am going to defend during all the remaining years of our mandate.”
Regarding the possible attendance at Milei’s inauguration, Government spokesperson Camila Vallejo announced this Monday that the Chilean president “now also has a very intense agenda in international, regional, economic and security matters”, but that, ” Beyond the visit or not to the change of command, our central objective is to maintain a good diplomatic relationship with Argentina.”
Boric and the outgoing president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, are close. On the Chilean’s first international trip as president, he visited Buenos Aires and speculated about the idea of a new Latin American left front. Along the way, however, there were a number of small diplomatic incidents that took the shine off a relationship that was expected to be luminous.
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