A scandal is brewing in Argentina that could lead to the impeachment of President Javier Milei. The opposition is convinced that the current leader of the country got involved in a fraudulent scheme related to the advertising of cryptocurrency, which discredited himself as a politician.
Opposition calls for impeachment
Representatives of several opposition parties spoke in favour of the impeachment of President Milei. Thus, the coalition “Union for the Homeland” (holds 99 out of 257 seats in the lower house of parliament) in its account in the social network X stated in its account on the “unprecedented scandal” and Milei’s involvement in the crime of fraud with cryptocurrency. Its leader, former president Cristina Kirchner, is convinced the fraudsters used Milei as bait.
Individual MPs from the Civic Coalition, the Socialist Party and the Radical Civic Union also condemned the president’s behaviour. The impeachment procedure is expected to be launched on Monday. It will need the approval of two-thirds of the lower and then the upper houses of parliament to succeed.
Libra token
The scandal erupted after the Argentine president promoted the new Libra token on his social network X account on Friday night. In his post, he indicated that this private project would boost the country’s economy by investing in small businesses and startups.
The capitalisation of the token quickly reached the $4.56 billion mark, after which its value collapsed by 94% in a few hours. Analytical service Lookonchain indicated that the reason was the withdrawal of $107 million to eight wallets associated with Libra. At the same time, a number of experts on cryptocurrency even before the collapse of the token began to warn that something wrong was going on.
The token’s advertisement in Milei’s account hung around for several hours after its value collapsed, until the president deleted his post. That fact sparked a debate about whether the president’s social media accounts and those of his supporters who reposted his post had been hacked.
Javier Milei soon indirectly confirmed the authorship of the controversial advert, but did not give any coherent explanation for his actions. In a new message, the president indicated that he “was not aware of the details of the project” and deleted his original message when he realised he had been caught in an unpleasant story. The Argentine leader concluded by warning the opposition against trying to take advantage of the situation, calling them “dirty rats.”
But is Javier Milei truly innocent?
At the same time, it is hardly possible to claim that Milei is completely uninvolved in the project. For example, its very name Viva La Libertad can be interpreted as a reference to the presidential party La Libertad Avanza (“Freedom is coming”). In addition, the website of the company that issued the token, KIP Protocol, still displays news from October 20 about a meeting between President Milei and its CEO, which is confirmed by their joint photo. Representatives of KIP Protocol officially stated that the president has nothing to do with the project, but this could not stop the scandal from spreading.
Javier Milei has instructed the anti-corruption office to determine whether there was improper behaviour in this situation “on the part of any member of the national government, including the president himself.” The presidential administration will also assemble a team of crypto-asset, finance and anti-money laundering experts tasked with investigating the circumstances surrounding the token launch.
Meanwhile, the opposition has a chance to launch impeachment proceedings against the president in parliament and thus interrupt the radical restructuring of Argentina’s economy initiated by him.
