Javier Milei announces Argentina to leave World Health Organization | Argentina

Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, has followed Donald Trump’s example and announced that Argentina will also leave the World Health Organization (WHO).

Milei attributed his decision to the WHO’s management of the Covid-19 pandemic, which he described as a “caveman quarantine that involved … one of the most outlandish crimes against humanity in history”.

The decision on Wednesday prompted immediate criticism from the opposition and health organisations who fear that withdrawing from the WHO will reduce the country’s access to funding.

A self-declared “anarcho-capitalist”, Milei is a prominent fan of Trump, who within hours of his 20 January inauguration signed an order for the United States to withdraw from the WHO, which he also has criticized for its handling of the pandemic.

“We have decided to leave such a harmful organisation, which was the executing arm of what was the largest social-control experiment in history,” wrote Milei on social media.

But critics said that the decision was not Milei’s to make, as such a move would require approval by congress. “In Argentina, the relationship with the WHO is part of a law, and therefore, in order to withdraw, another law should be approved,” said Juan Gabriel Tokatlian, professor of international relations at the Universidad Torcuato Di Tella in Buenos Aires.

Milei’s spokesperson, Manuel Adorni, argued that the decision would not result in a loss of funding for the country.

But health institutions such as the NGO Soberanía Sanitaria, which works to improve public access to healthcare services, said the move would directly “impact access to revolving and strategic funds for the purchase of essential medical technologies and supplies”.

Also on Wednesday, the presidential office announced that Milei had taken the decision to ban gender change treatments and surgeries for minors, as well as impose limits on trans women being housed inside women’s prisons.

In a press conference, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni said the ban would include hormone therapy and followed similar pushbacks in legislation on trans rights in countries such as the UK, Sweden, Finland and the US, and sought to protect children’s mental health.

The announcement comes days after thousands of Argentines protested in favour of LGBTQ+ rights after Milei made a speech in Davos, Switzerland, in which he questioned “feminism, diversity, inclusion, abortion, environmentalism and gender ideology”, calling progressive policies a “cancer that must be extirpated.”

Trump has also launched a slew of moves rolling back the rights of trans people, including banning transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports and signing an executive order calling for the federal government to define sex as “only male or female” based on reproductive cells.

Milei has frequently voiced criticism of international bodies, but many critics interpreted Wednesday’s decision to withdraw from the WHO as an attempt to align himself even more closely with the US president.

“With Argentina’s departure from the WHO, Milei becomes Trump’s total puppet,” wrote congressman Gabriel Solano on social media.

“Milei wants to imitate Trump and do what the US does,” said Alejandro Frenkel, professor of international relations at the Universidad Nacional de San Martín in Buenos Aires.

Following Trump’s lead, the libertarian has also announced plans to leave the Paris climate agreement and build a 200m wire fence along the border with Bolivia to curb immigration.

Frenkel believes there are risks in “trying to do the same as a world’s leading power when Argentina is a peripheral country on the global stage … The US has other resources that might allow it to be self-sufficient in some areas, which countries like Argentina do not have,” he said.

In November, Milei visited Palm Beach, Florida, and became the first foreign leader to meet with Trump after his election victory. The Argentinian was one of three Latin American presidents to attend Trump’s inauguration at the Capitol, alongside El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele and Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa.

Tokatlian cautioned that Milei might be overestimating what Trump has to offer in return. “Argentina has so many vulnerabilities. Does this government think it will solve them by getting closer to Washington? Washington has shown it doesn’t care much whether it’s a friend, an enemy, a partner, or not,” he said.

“It’s worth remembering that, in his first term, Trump imposed tariffs on Argentina for steel and aluminium … He doesn’t care if you’re an ally or an opponent. Trump will continue with his style,” said Tokatlian.

Since taking office, Milei has implemented a series of austerity measures in state healthcare, the latest of which included 1,400 layoffs at the ministry of health in January – among them, 30% of the vaccine directorate staff, and 40% of the HIV, hepatitis and tuberculosis response directorate team.

Reuters contributed to this story