The reconstruction of the Argentine Republic under the mandate of President Javier Milei has opened a scenario of open battle against corporate entities that have benefited from state protection for decades. This clash of fundamental visions reached its peak this Wednesday, where the business meeting Winds of Change took place. There, the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, firmly and conceptually addressed the corporatist attacks from the Argentine Industrial Union (UIA).
Tension escalated after the insults from Guillermo Moretti, vice president of the manufacturing entity, who, in an attempt to discredit the technical solvency of the national official, derogatorily stated that “we are being managed by a trader who doesn’t know what a lathe is”.
In response to this aggression, Minister Caputo did not hesitate and delivered a devastating reply that marks the moral direction of the government: “I fully understand the frustrations that any change generates, secondly because everyone defends their interests”, introducing a fundamental ethical distinction against the patronage corporation by stating that: “As Minister of Economy, I have to defend the interests of 48 million Argentines, not of certain businessmen”.
This firm governmental stance was also evident in a historic snub during the Day of Industry: no national official participated in the official act of the UIA at the Elea Laboratory plant, located in Malvinas Argentinas, marking a drastic contrast with the previous year when Caputo and Diego Santilli —then Minister of the Interior— had participated in the event.
The Minister of Economy dismantled with empirical data the industrialist narrative of the previous regime that supposedly strengthened local production. Caputo demonstrated that the protectionism of the past administration was a resounding failure that destroyed the national industry itself, causing a drop of 10 points in manufacturing activity over the last 11 years. In the face of the mythology of import substitution, the official was blunt: “There is no data to support that”.
Furthermore, he exposed the moral and economic cost that ordinary citizens had to bear to enrich a minority sector protected by closed customs: “That Argentines have to pay for lower quality goods at two, four, 10 times their value seems immoral and unfair to me”.
In a forceful plea in favor of decency and market justice, Caputo emphasized that under the current administration, the era of state parasitism has ended: “As Minister of Economy, I have to have empathy with all Argentines and do what is morally right”, adding that “there is no other way, the way cannot be that Argentines continue to subsidize certain businessmen”.
