Buenos Aires (AP) – The Argentine government announced on Wednesday that the South American country will retire from the World Health Organization (WHO) for its “deep differences” with the health management that it carries out, in line with the decision that He recently announced his maximum ally, US President Donald Trump.
“Outside WHO … !!! Long live La Libertad Cajo, ”said President Javier Milei in his X account, formerly Twitter, after his spokesman reported in a press conference of the decision, which generated a cataract of reactions against opposition leaders in the South American country
The president, an ultraliberal who rejects the agenda of progressivism, is recognized as an anarchocapitalist and renieces of the interference of the State and supranational organizations on the agenda of his country, also posted several of his interventions against international forums questioning the United Nations and the WHO created within the organization in 1948.
In one of his speeches, the president said that the United Nations “was born to defend the rights of man” and “has been one of the main propellastors of the violation of freedom, such as with the quarantines globally in 2020,” when the Covid-19 pandemic took place.
Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni indicated that Milei had instructed Chancellor Gerardo Werthein “to withdraw Argentina’s participation in the World Health Organization.”
The decision “is based on the deep differences in health management, especially during pandemic (of Covid-19), which led us to the longest confinement in the history of humanity” and the lack of independence “in the face of political influence Of some states, ”said the spokesman, who did not need what countries he was referring to.
He added that Argentina will not allow an international organism to intervene in its sovereignty “much less in our health.”
Several voices expressed their disagreement. The Minister of Health of the City of Buenos Aires, Fernán Quirós – of the Conservative Party Republican Proposal (PRO) – said that “health coordination policies are indispensable in the pandemic periods we are living.”
The Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires – discistance governed by Peronism – rejected on its side “the arbitrary mode” in which the government made the decision, without consulting with the different jurisdictions of the country. He pointed out that WHO provides “information, training, financing and access to health strategies and analysis to plan and improve health policies.”
Other opponents questioned that Argentina will lose the possibility of buying vaccines at the lowest price and sell Doctors like the one who coordinates the transplants “would lose their status as collaborating centers.”
In addition, they criticized Milei’s alignment with US policies.
Trump announced shortly after assuming a new mandate on January 20, the withdrawal of his country from the Health Agency that coordinates the world response to global health threats, provides technical assistance to the poorest countries and helps distribute the few supplies of vaccines.
The Milei government a few days before a new trip of the president to the United States around February 20, coinciding with the summit of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) that will bring together leaders on the right in Washington. The spokesman not yet offered details of the agency of the Argentine president and if he will meet with Trump during his stay in the US capital.
The now president of Argentina was one of the greatest critics of the management made by the Peronist Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) when the new coronavirus hit the South American country. In interviews he provided being a media economist said that the quarantine model applied precipitated a fall in the economy and that the government used it as a “repression” mechanism.
After the words of the spokesman, a government statement stressed that the WHO “promoted eternal quarantines without scientific support” and advised an Argentine government “that left children out of school, hundreds of thousands of workers without income, led to shops and SMEs (small and medium enterprises) to bankruptcy, and still cost us 130,000 lives. ”
“Today the evidence indicates that WHO recipes do not work because they are the result of political influence, not based on science,” said the statement, which also called to rethink for what there are supranational organizations funded “by all” that are They dedicate “to do international politics.”
WHO has no authority to force countries to take specific sanitary measures, the guidelines and recommendations of the organization are often ignored, even in health crises such as COVID-19.
According to Adorni, Argentina does not receive financing from said organization for its health management and the decision taken, which did not say when it will be implemented, “does not represent loss of funds or affects the quality of services.”
“On the contrary, it gives greater flexibility to implement policies adopted to the context of interest required by Argentina, as well as greater availability of resources,” said the spokesman in line with the government’s determination to continue applying a policy of strong cut of the expense .
The government of the ultraliberal president had rejected in 2024 the signing of an agreement for the management of pandemics in the framework of the WHO alleging that doing so could affect national sovereignty.
Although Argentina was expected to contribute about eight million dollars to WHO for its estimated budget of 6,900 million dollars by 2024-2025, the loss of another member country will contribute to fracture world cooperation in world health.
WHO depends on the cooperation of countries to monitor emerging viruses that could cause pandemics. In recent years, viruses such as Zika, Covid-19 and that of symptoms have caused epidemics far beyond countries where they were first detected.
The head of the WHO, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, requested in private representatives of countries that persuade that of the United States so that Trump reconsider the exit of his country from the agency.
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In this note, The Associated Press, Maria Cheng, from London, collaborated.
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