Caíto Leconte: 'Young people understood Milei's message because he is authentic'

In an in-depth interview with La Derecha Diario, Ricardo "Caíto" Leconte, first candidate for provincial deputy for La Libertad Avanza in Corrientes, traced a personal and political journey that has connected him with the ideas of classical liberalism since his youth. With a strong cultural imprint, Leconte upholds the battle of ideas as the backbone of his activism, and points out that his formal entry into politics responds to the need to move from theory to legislative action. He values his history within the Corrientes Liberal Party, although he acknowledges that it was necessary to open a new space when the party lost its ideological direction. His goal: to legislate as an ordinary citizen, without privileges, and in line with Javier Milei's principles.

Throughout the conversation, Leconte highlights Milei's role as the "great communicator" of liberalism, whom he met more than a decade ago and with whom he shares the conviction that without a sustained cultural battle, economic reforms do not endure. He keeps that youth has been key in this process and that Corrientes, historically liberal but lagging in terms of infrastructure and development, now has a unique opportunity to align itself with the transformation driven by the president. In that sense, he asserts that the defense of freedom takes place not only in Congress, but also in classrooms, in books, and in the consistency of public and private life.

The full interview with Ricardo "Caíto" Leconte

Ares: Ricardo, first of all I wanted to ask you why you entered politics, when you may face some personal implications and other things that can become complicated.

Caíto Leconte: Well, I embraced liberal ideas from a very young age and I was always affiliated with the Corrientes Liberal Party, which defended liberal ideas here in the province, a bastion from the oldest party in the country. It was founded in 1856 and maintained an identity. The liberal identity was through the Liberal Party. I have considered for many years, as a result of the political situation in Corrientes, the alliances with radicalism and with Peronism led the Liberal Party away from its identity. So, in that sense, I, being inside the party, proposed to lead a liberal libertarian project for Corrientes.

No, it never happened, and so, after a while, we created a foundation to spread the ideas of freedom and we fought the cultural battle for many years, for a lifetime. I believe that, therefore, I have always been in politics without ever having held a political office, but always spreading the ideas, proposing projects, writing, giving talks. Well, always with the expectation that at some point I would present a political position to the electorate, and I did so in 2021, when many liberals in the country talked so that we could someday have three or four legislators in Congress. That year Javier Milei ran, Victoria Villarruel, Ricardo López Murphy, José Luis Espert had run before, but some friends from Chaco, from Córdoba, and us, I ran here, and we went to the PASO, right?

We had good acceptance from the electorate, we got more votes than the traditional parties here, from the Liberal Party, which I do not say I confronted because I used the party's label to enter, but I got more votes. So we said: there is a whole movement being caused toward liberal ideas, and well, that's when Javier Milei's phenomenon exploded, right? Well, I believe that we have to fight the battle. I always say: we have fought the good battle, which is the cultural battle, and we have to move on to political action to take that cultural battle to the Legislature, in this case which is my current task.

I want to go to the Legislature, but not to perpetuate myself in power, but to legislate, to oversee, as the president says, to return power to the people, to eliminate privileges, political benefits. I believe that one can't legislate unless one is an ordinary citizen. If I distance myself from the ordinary citizen, I can't legislate for the ordinary citizen. So, I must go to set an example, to generate what we have always talked about, and by fighting the cultural battle, to raise it in the National Congress. That is a challenge that, as a liberal, I feel, and I want people to feel that there is an ordinary citizen who holds a circumstantial position, and who can legislate and represent the ordinary citizen, because I am an ordinary citizen.

If I stop being an ordinary citizen, I can't represent them. So, this is a very interesting challenge, to continue fighting the cultural battle, but now in the political arena, because the political arena has a whole issue of structures, agreements, and matters that one has to address. That challenge motivates us. Another thing: President Javier Milei is carrying out a structural reform of Argentina, and he, as a liberal, needs liberals in decision-making positions, in the places where issues are solved.

And there are not so many liberals. So, it is important for us to get involved in the political arena to carry out the proposals that the president is already successfully generating in the country, so that we can transform those ideas, bring them to Corrientes, which is a province that has a liberal style in its history, but well, now a bit dormant. Well, we have that challenge. Supporting the president in this transformation of the country, I believe, is essential, from whatever position we may have, right?

Some continue in the cultural battle, others fight the cultural battle from within politics. Well, as liberals, we have that challenge, because we have greater responsibility, because we have always said or had a discourse, and now we have to show whether it was just a discourse or if it really is a way of life. I believe that liberalism, for me, is a way of life. Well, That's why what we do, let's say, and legislate from December onwards, carries greater responsibility, right?

Ares: Yes, I wanted to ask you, you have spoken many times about the cultural battle, right? The other day I interviewed Adrián Ravier, who will be a candidate in La Pampa, also for La Libertad Avanza, and we talked precisely about this, about the importance of the cultural battle. Because although freedom guarantees economic success, we can see in the region that Chile, economic success alone did not lead the people to defend those ideas, to defend that prosperity, and to take it for granted, as something that can never be lost.

That's why I wanted to ask you: you talk a lot about the cultural battle, how important do you think it is precisely in the country's political scene? Why do you think it is so important?

Caíto Leconte: I believe it is essential. Because, as I said: there are not so many liberals, there are not so many convinced people. We are not 56% liberals. The president won the elections, he is a liberal, but he won the elections for multiple reasons: for his personality, for his knowledge, for his courage and determination regarding the direction Argentina must take. But a series of factors came together. If tomorrow we had elections only among liberals, we would be very few, right? So, today people are starting to talk about fiscal balance, about eliminating fiscal deficit, about lowering taxes. Why do people do that?

And politics takes that message, because the paradigm changes, right? People are the ones demanding those changes, so politics takes them, and from there the direction of public affairs changes. So, cultural change, the cultural battle, is essential. Because the president can now make all the pro-market reforms and other measures, but after that, if you do not succeed in the cultural battle, the whole process collapses.

So, cultural change, the cultural battle, is essential. Because the president can now make all the pro-market reforms and other measures, but after that, if you do not succeed in the cultural battle, the whole process collapses.

That happened to us in Argentina. There was already a period in the 90s when Argentina opened up to the world, we had open markets, privatizations—which were not done in parallel—the cultural battle was not fought. So, after a while, many people who voted for privatizations later voted for their nationalization, and we went backwards in a number of advances that Argentina had achieved. Aerolíneas Argentinas has cost us how many millions, thousands of millions of dollars. I always say: this issue of Aerolíneas Argentinas has cost more than all the infrastructure Corrientes needs to develop in trains, ports, energy.

I remind people: Corrientes, the NEA region, is the only area in the country that doesn't have natural gas. We are still here with gas cylinders, as in the mid-20th century. So, if we do not instill in young people the fight for freedom, the benefits these ideas bring, we may achieve circumstantial objectives.

And political positions are circumstantial, precisely. Principles are eternal. So, I may be in a political position today and may develop the cultural battle, but tomorrow, if I am not there, that is lost. If one manages to instill the principles of liberalism, those are eternal.

And they remain for the next generations, who will continue to defend those ideas. So, the cultural battle is essential. I believe the president highlights it.

He highlights the electoral and political struggle he is leading, but he highlights the cultural battle on the same level, with the same importance. That is important. In the past, young people—being a revolutionary meant being on the left—it was about seeking power, a bit from the epic, seeking to change things. Today, being a revolutionary means being a liberal. Because the liberal is the one who wants to dismantle the status quo, wants to generate change, wants to modify the state of affairs.

So, today being a revolutionary means being a liberal. Young people are picking up on that, they are understanding it. We, the older ones, have that responsibility. Not only to do politics, but to do politics and fight the cultural battle.

It is essential that we, by our example, when we have to take on a public responsibility, not only take the position, but also take on the burden. The burden means, for a liberal, giving up privileges, giving up benefits, seeking deregulation, ensuring that the measures that are often legislated are analyzed beforehand: what fiscal impact they have, what economic impact, what impact they may have on production. Otherwise, we see what happens here in Corrientes, on television, what happens in the National Congress, where laws are passed with altruism, with grandiloquent words, but it is not said where the resources will come from, how those ideas can be carried out.

And they end up mortgaging future generations because of decisions made today, by people who are not responsible and will not have to pay for the irresponsibility of current politics. So, for me the cultural battle is essential and we have to fight it alongside the political battle.

Ares: Based on that, I wanted to ask you: lately and precisely since Milei's emergence—which, at least in my opinion, is something that has resurfaced not only in Argentina but also globally—, what role do you assign to Milei in this phenomenon?

Caíto Leconte: Ah, essential. He is, for me, the greatest communicator of liberal ideas. Because of his knowledge—he is a person, a technician, a specialist—, but he is also a great communicator, and his determined personality leads people to grasp the ideas. The perception I have always had is: when someone finds a treasure, the first thing they do is show it to their family, their friends, tell them: "I have discovered this."

Well, that is what happens to me with the ideas of freedom. It is a treasure and I want to share it. Perhaps one doesn't have the ability to communicate like President Javier Milei. So he, for me, is the great communicator of liberal ideas. He has reached young people, he has captured the attention of young people—who in many cases were totally removed from politics or from thinking—and with Javier Milei they have started to take an interest in liberal authors. Today young people ask you: who can I read? Where can one get educated? That has to do with this battle.

Because Javier Milei's process did not start in the electoral struggle. He did not say "I am going to be a politician," but rather "I am going to fight the cultural battle." He did so in academia, in the media, and then became a politician. So, the impact he has had on generations, on young people, is essential.

Well, we were lucky to meet him eleven years ago and the truth is that he impressed us from the very first moment. Well, we have—not to say at the same level—but we have accompanied the process of that cultural battle that the president has fought from the very beginning. Before he became a media figure, when he was only an academic, but he already had that imprint, that explosion and that way of expressing the ideas that makes you catch the enthusiasm and want to go out and share them and convince others. Because these are the ideas that made us great as a country in the 19th century, and when we forgot them we began to suffer the consequences.

We have accompanied—when you ask me how important we consider it—from the Club de la Libertad, which is a foundation we have to defend the ideas of freedom, with a group of friends—where Alberto Medina Méndez is the president—we helped, we accompanied the editing of two books by President Javier Milei. One is "El retorno al sendero de la decadencia argentina," that is the first, which we were able to help edit. The other is "Maquinita, inflita y devaluta," these are two books I have here, which we helped edit. Here is the Club de la Libertad, this is the logo of our club, and we helped edit those two books by the president.

We have always been concerned about the cultural battle. This was not for a position. When we did these things, these meetings, we spread the ideas of freedom, we thought maybe in some time—maybe in 50 years—Argentina could enjoy these ideas. Someone would reap what we were sowing. And it happened.

So let's say: Javier Milei's importance is enormous. After 10 years we are seeing a transformation of Argentina, Argentina's return to the world, the return of our ideas. The results are visible, because people tell you: "but these ideas..." Yes, the results are visible. Poverty rates have dropped from over 50 to over 30, and are still falling. Inflation has been stopped, the economy is reactivating. That is a topic to keep working on, with even more reason now that our ideas are being applied.

It is easier to be in opposition. At this moment, when the ideas are being applied, is when they must be defended the most. That also has to do with entering the political arena, the electoral arena.

Ares: Now I ask you, we all know Milei as a politician: what is Milei like as a person?

Caíto Leconte: Well, we know him because of this institutional matter. He is a very transparent person. That is how I met him: very transparent, saying things as they are, he doesn't hold back, he doesn't measure his words. He is authentic. I feel that is it: he is authentic. The way you see him today, he was ten years ago.

I always tell an anecdote. The first time he came to give a talk, he gave two talks in Corrientes. I invited my family—we were not many—I invited people connected to liberalism. When we left the meeting, which was impressive, it was motivating, the older people told me: "hey, but the manners, the usual, the manners, the ways..." And my daughter, who was 16 years old or so at the time, told me: "Dad, I understood everything." She was studying for admission to Medicine, and she said: "Dad, I understood everything." I said: there is something here. Young people immediately grasped the message.

Because he is authentic, he is as he appears. I believe he is so authentic that he always tells the truth. That is what you see, and that is what he is. In a world of appearances—nowadays, of appearances, with duplicity—having an authentic person... that, as young people say, young people "buy it," and that is how the president is. He reaches young people because he is authentic, I believe. He has no duplicity. That is the impression I have.

It is essential. In an Argentina overwhelmed by lies, someone appeared who tells you the truth, and that is very important. That is a change of direction. He stands up for the truth, above all.

Ares: I wanted to ask you, now moving a bit more into the political field: what political particularities do you find in your province? What can you tell us that is different from the rest? You just mentioned, for example, the fact that you still do not have natural gas. What can you tell us about what the province needs, about what you think liberalism, Milei's ideas, can contribute?

Caíto Leconte: Corrientes has a long tradition with liberal ideas, which has been forgotten. We have a clear dependence on public employment. We have these issues. We have a dam, which is the Yacyretá dam, which produces energy, 20% of the country's electricity is produced by Yacyretá. We pay for energy as if kilometer zero of the energy, as if the dam were in Ezeiza. We are charged for transportation, and we pay the highest energy prices in the country, even though the dam is in our territory.

We suffer, at times, the environmental impacts of the dam, and we also suffer the impacts of a false federalism, which makes us pay—for energy at the foot of the dam—the transportation that doesn't exist. We do not have natural gas, as I just mentioned. We do not have road infrastructure. In Corrientes there are only 62 miles (100 kilometers) of highway: from Mocoretá to Paso de los Libres. After that, we have no highways. They are all roads, some more than 37 miles (60 kilometers) old, poorly maintained.

So, Corrientes lacks infrastructure to be able to export production. We have 186 miles (300 kilometers) of railway, when in 1901 we had 497 miles (800 kilometers) of railway. So, all production is transported by trucks. That increases freight costs, makes the roads more dangerous—which are already in a precarious situation. We are disconnected from La Pampa. We have only one bridge connecting us to Chaco: the General Belgrano bridge. We need bridge infrastructure, from Goya or Lavalle to Reconquista, to connect us with the Humid Pampas.

We do not have railways, we do not have... All these issues make producing in Corrientes very difficult, very expensive. So there are a number of things we have to address.

Then we have institutional issues. In Corrientes, for example, there is no law on access to public information. So, we do not know how, or on what, public funds are spent. That is, the quality of infrastructure and the institutional quality in Corrientes can have a rebirth. It is necessary for that to happen, because otherwise, it is very difficult for a productive area like Corrientes—with very capable and very enterprising people—to have the necessary support to develop.

The State ends up being, in Corrientes, a structure that, instead of promoting development, ends up discouraging individuals from carrying out their ventures. So, there are things to do in Corrientes. We must legislate to facilitate, not to have a State that ends up being an expensive partner, but to have a minimal State, that deregulates, that gives you facilities and conditions to produce as quickly as possible, in the most convenient and fastest way. Not to have endless permits to open a business.

Everything remains to be done. My intention is to go to the Legislature to oversee, but above all to deregulate. There is legislative inflation that makes us unproductive and causes our province, instead of exploiting its productive forces, to end up giving up that possibility of expansion. So, there is a lot to do in a province. We are one of the poorest provinces in the country and we have the great challenge of creating a province with all the possibilities.

We have borders with three countries, we are in the center of Mercosur, but we do not even have the possibility of having a railway to be a mandatory transit route for the bi-oceanic connection, which is one of the issues we have to address: exporting all production through the Pacific. Corrientes is at the center of all that, and sometimes watches as a guest the development that is taking place in Paraguay and Brazil, and we are not up to that level of development. Corrientes must be up to the transformations that are taking place in the country. That is the great challenge we have ahead.

Ares: Well, to finish I wanted to ask you. You have also spoken a lot about understanding the ideas behind, the foundations of the ideas of freedom. What book would you recommend to someone who wants to start learning in order to understand these ideas a bit more?

Caíto Leconte: Well, for me Alberdi always... If you ask me what I read: first I think I read his letter to the University of Buenos Aires, while he was abroad, his first letter. That is an article I would recommend as a starting point. Alberdi's lecture that was read at the University of Buenos Aires, a few years—two years, three years—before his death, I find that interesting. One can start there.

Then a book that I read when I was young—very young—was The Road to Serfdom, by Friedrich Hayek, which talked about totalitarianism, the rise of totalitarianism, and how we were heading toward the future, which came to pass.

Another topic. Well, there are many. I have my library, I am truly proud of my library. But Human Action, by Mises, is also a book I recommend. Well, Atlas Shrugged is a book by Ayn Rand as well. There are countless. There are countless books I could recommend.

But another thing I read a lot in my youth was the collection Ideas sobre la libertad, by Alberto Benegas Lynch. Because there, authors such as Leonard Read, Henry Hazlitt, Benegas Lynch himself, Mises, Hayek wrote. It is truly a compendium, a collection that I value greatly.

But there is another, more polished, called Ideas para la libertad, which I treasure. In this article Sennholz, Leonard Read write; in this one again Henry, Alberto Benegas Lynch, Hayek, Hazlitt. They are—truly—material that in my youth opened my mind, in a country that, totally... It made me rediscover that there were other ideas, that what was discussed in politics and heard in the media was not the way.

These collections opened my mind and made me see that there were other ideas. And I thought they were not applied anywhere in the world, and then I realized they had been applied in Argentina, in the 19th century. That's why we became one of the most advanced countries, which later managed to overcome illiteracy, and which became a beacon for the world. We were the port of arrival, or the gateway for many people who were able to "make it in America." They did it here.

So, those are the ideas that I believe will transform the country. Thank God I can see it, and that has a lot to do with Javier Milei. That is also why our commitment to the cultural battle, and our commitment to the electoral struggle. Because these ideas must be defended in academia, and they must be defended in the streets, in institutions. Because we know the result and the benefit they can bring to the people, to the Argentine people. We would be irresponsible if we did not fight that battle.

So I say: we must fight the battle, but we must fight the good battle. The good battle is in the ideas, and in trying to put them into practice.