MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Spanish Labor Minister announces tour of Argentina and Uruguay

Díaz will seek to spread a progressive international agenda during her trip

Spain's Labor Minister and Second Deputy Prime Minister Yolanda Díaz will be touring Argentina and Uruguay later this month to attend Yamandú Orsi's inauguration in Montevideo on March 1, among other engagements, her office in Madrid announced Thursday.

Díaz plans to meet with Buenos Aires Province Governor and opposition leader Axel Kicillof to ratify “Spain's commitment to a development model based on democracy, work, and social justice,” the communiqué noted. She is also scheduled to give a lecture on the challenges of democracy in the world of work at the University of Buenos Aires in the Argentine capital.

With tensions and distances marked between the governments of Spain and Argentina, Díaz's stay will take place amidst criticism for Milei's backing of the launch of the $LIBRA cryptocurrency, which subsequently collapsed and is at the center of a scandal.

Besides Orsi's swearing-in ceremony, Díaz will in Montevideo take part in the forum “Democracy, Development and Equality in a Changing World,” in addition to meeting with like-minded Presidents Gabriel Boric Font of Chile and Guatemala's Bernardo Arévalo as well as Colombian Vice-President Francia Márquez.

Diaz has long been advocating for a working week of 37.5 hours in Spain and would be seeking to push that initiative among Argentine and Uruguayan politicians, given her agenda focused on the “defense of labor rights and the strengthening of ties between the Argentine, Uruguayan, and Spanish peoples.” Hence, Díaz is committed to strengthening a progressive international agenda, based on social justice, the expansion of labor rights, and cooperation between Europe and Latin America to face global challenges, it was explained.