MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Petro and AMLO describe Milei in not-quite-friendly words

I still do not understand how Argentines, being so intelligent, voted for someone who is not accurate,” AMLO wrote on X

After derogatory remarks against them from Argentina's Javier Milei, Presidents Gustavo Petro of Colombia and Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) of Mexico also had their say Thursday.

“Today the Argentine people are suffering and poverty is increasing,” Petro stressed after expelling Argentina's diplomatic mission in Bogotá and recalling his Ambassador in Buenos Aires the day before. He also pointed out that Milei despised the Argentine people and was trying to “destroy Latin American integration.”

”Milei claimed that I am an 'ignoramus' because I called him a 'conservative facho (fascist).' He is right: I still do not understand how Argentines, being so intelligent, voted for someone who is not accurate,“ AMLO wrote on X. He also recalled that Milei once dubbed his fellow Argentine Pope Francis a Communist and the ”representative of the Evil One on earth.“

AMLO also argued that the former Archbishop of Buenos Aires was ”the most Christian Pope and defender of the poor that I have ever known or heard of.“

”Milei's promise to repeat the neoliberal system of 30 years ago may be a failure,“ Petro also wrote on social media.

Unlike Colombia, Mexico is not taking any diplomatic measures against Argentina for now. However, AMLO insisted that Milei's ”thesis in the world that has seen today how neoliberalism led to worsen the climate crisis and to put us as a species on the brink of extinction is not accurate.“

”The Argentine people are the ones who should discuss these issues and decide,“ wrote López Obrador.

”Despite the insults, we must preserve the project of unity, in diversity, of Latin America and the Caribbean,“ Petro also pointed out in an interview.

Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández spoke in favor of Petro: ”I regret and categorically reject the statements made by President Javier Milei, who has mistreated the president of Colombia, Gustavo Petro. My solidarity with the president of the Colombian people,” he posted.