Argentine President Milei heads to CPAC in Brazil, snubbing Lula and escalating a political feud

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Given the choice between a far-right convention to bash his enemies and a presidential summit to discuss regional trade policy, Argentine President Javier Milei preferred the stadium packed with cheering fans.

The libertarian leader on Sunday strode onto the stage of Brazil's CPAC, an extension of the conservative political action conference, to a soundtrack of heavy metal rock. Basking in his cult-like following, Milei rhythmically threw his hands up in the air, chanting, “Freedom! as the audience hooted and pumped their fists.

Before delivering his go-to manifesto about the evils of socialism and virtues of the free market, Milei gave a hearty hug to Brazil's hard-right former President Javier Bolsonaro, who just days earlier was indicted by federal police in a scheme to embezzle Saudi diamonds.

“My friend Jair Bolsonaro is suffering judicial persecution," Milei said onstage from the conference in Brazil’s southern city of Balneario Camboriu.

In skipping the Mercosur trade bloc summit in Paraguay and publicly backing Bolsonaro — who also stands accused of attempting to subvert Brazil’s 2022 election result — Milei delivered another harsh rebuke to Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, escalating a risky feud with his country’s biggest trading partner.

Apparently aware of those stakes, Milei made no mention of Lula in his speech Sunday after months of branding the leftist leader a “communist," calling him “corrupt” and refusing to deal with him. Local media was awash with reports citing Brazilian diplomats Sunday that they were considering the unprecedented move of pulling the Brazilian ambassador from Buenos Aires if Milei doubled down on his insults of the president while in Brazil.

When the crowd began shouting, “Lula, you thief, your place is in prison!” Milei allowed himself a quiet smile before returning to his speech.

“The winds of change are blowing in the world,” he said. “The ideas of impoverishing socialism have failed and people know it.”

Milei's photo-ops with disgraced ex-President Bolsonaro — shaking hands in front of their respective national flags as though they were counterparts — marked the latest example of Milei’s provocative foreign policy, courting the global spotlight through friendships with hard-right allies rather than following diplomatic convention.

The night before, Bolsonaro opened the Brazilian CPAC with a fiery speech declaring his desire to see former U.S. President Donald Trump return to the White House next year. He and Milei were then spotted together in a downtown hotel lobby littered with drained wine glasses, watching Uruguay kick Brazil out of the 2024 Copa America.

Since the irascible Milei rode to power last December on a promise to fix Argentina's worst economic crisis in two decades, relations between the long-time allies and commodity powerhouses have rapidly deteriorated.

The ideological enemies crossed paths for the first time at the Group of Seven summit last month in Italy, where their efforts to avoid each other as much as physically possible grabbed local headlines. As their war of words intensified in recent weeks, Lula demanded an apology from Milei's government.

Experts say that mingling on the sidelines of the South American trade bloc meeting on Monday would have offered Milei a low-stakes opportunity to defuse tensions with Brazil, Latin America’s biggest economy with a population of some 200 million.

Brazil buys nearly a sixth of Argentina’s exports, supplies most of Argentina's auto industry and backs its neighbor's bids to get badly needed aid from International Monetary Fund.

Instead, Milei has doubled down on a foreign policy gamble that experts have criticized as misguided.

“He seems to be shooting himself in the foot,” Michael Shifter, a scholar of Latin America at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington, said of Milei. “It's shocking and counterproductive for him to thumb his nose at Lula in this way because there could be a lot of cost for Argentina, that could affect his ability to carry out his policies.”

The president's ideologically driven strategy set off a political storm earlier this year in Spain, the second-largest foreign investor in Argentina, as Milei shunned meetings with the socialist government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and instead gave a similar speech lambasting socialism at a far-right rally organized by the country's Vox Party.

The snub spiraled into a diplomatic crisis between the historic allies when Milei called Sánchez's wife corrupt and Spain pulled its ambassador from Buenos Aires.

Despite five trips to the United States since taking office, Milei has yet to enter the White House. But he has hugged Trump at CPAC in Washington, bonded over his love of free markets in Texas with billionaire Tesla executive Elon Musk and met top tech CEOs in Silicon Valley.

“He wants to present himself as a rock star of international politics which does generate admiration in some sectors of Argentina,” said Fabio Rodriguez, director at Buenos Aires-based consultancy M&R Asociados. “But already polls indicate that this may be changing, that people are seeing this as a liability, feeling abandoned in the sense that their president spends his time on tour while things are not improving on a daily basis.”

Pressures are building in Argentina, where annual inflation nears 300% and the local currency last week touched a historic low of 1,430 pesos per dollar on the black market, where Argentines sell their rapidly depreciating pesos. The government this week revised its own growth projections, saying it expected the economy to contract by more than 3% this year.

Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro, right, hugs Argentina's President Javier Milei at CPAC Brasil 2024, a conservative event, in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Heuler Andrey)

Argentina's Defense Minister Luis Petri gives a speech at CPAC Brasil 2024, a conservative event, in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Heuler Andrey)

Argentina's President Javier Milei, left, hugs Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro during CPAC Brasil 2024, a conservative event, in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Heuler Andrey)

Argentina's President Javier Milei, left, raises his fits with Brazilian former President Jair Bolsonaro during CPAC Brasil 2024, a conservative event, in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Heuler Andrey)

Argentina's President Javier Milei gives a speech at CPAC Brasil 2024, a conservative event, in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Heuler Andrey)

Argentina's President Javier Milei gestures to the audience after giving a speech at CPAC Brasil 2024, a conservative event, in Balneario Camboriu, Santa Catarina state, Brazil, Sunday, July 7, 2024. (AP Photo/Heuler Andrey)

President Javier Milei waves as he departs from a ceremony to greet the athletes who will compete in the Paris Olympic Games, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Friday, July 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Natacha Pisarenko)

BEIRUT (AP) — Israel's military struck outside the gates of a hospital in southern Lebanon without warning on Friday, killing seven paramedics and forcing the facility to close, the hospital director told The Associated Press a day after one of the most deadly attacks on health workers in the weeks since fighting escalated between Israel and Hezbollah.

The account of the Friday airstrikes that flung hospital doors off their hinges and shattered glass was the latest to detail attacks that Lebanon's health ministry says have killed dozens of health workers.

Marjayoun hospital director Mounes Kalakesh said that even before Friday's attack, ambulance crews in the area were so reluctant to operate that the facility had not received anyone wounded for days.

“We have not been able to work. There was fear and panic among the staff,” he said.

Kalakesh said the government hospital didn't receive any warning from Israeli forces before the attack, even though nearby villages have received such warnings to evacuate.

Israel has not commented specifically on the incident. Friday's attack came hours before Israel’s Arabic-language military spokesman accused the Hezbollah militant group, based in southern Lebanon, of using ambulances to transport weapons and fighters, and warned medical teams to stay clear of the group. The spokesman provided no evidence.

It is a charge that Lebanese officials and hospital directors, including Kalakesh, deny. Lebanon’s health minister has accused Israel of committing “a war crime” by targeting medical teams and paramedics.

The health ministry on Thursday said 40 paramedics, firefighters and health care workers had been killed in Israeli attacks over three days, making it even more challenging to care for people wounded in the intense fighting.

The ministry has said more than 100 health workers have been killed in the year since the war in Gaza began and since Israel and Hezbollah stepped up exchanges of fire along the border.

The paramedics with the Islamic Health Committee are part of the coordinated health ministry response to crises in Lebanon. Other civil defense teams have expressed concern for their safety, with some saying they came under attack while clearly identified and operating in areas where they were transporting the wounded or putting out fires.

Israeli strikes have landed near the Marjayoun hospital before but never had come so close, Kalakesh said. He described the paramedics dying in their burning vehicles.

The 45-bed hospital is now shut down.

“I am responsible for this staff. I must protect them,” Kalakesh said, explaining the decision to evacuate. At the time of the Friday attack, there were 30 staff in the hospital. His team was already exhausted after a year of working close to the front line.

Other groups have expressed concern.

A Lebanese Red Cross convoy, escorted by Lebanese troops and coordinated with the U.N. peacekeeping force in Lebanon, came under fire on Thursday. A Lebanese soldier was killed and four Red Cross volunteers were wounded.

Separately on Thursday, Israeli forces struck rescue teams with the Islamic Health Committee in Beirut's southern suburbs and the southern village of Odeissah, killing at least four.

Targeting the health sector undermines the safety net for the public, Islamic Health Committee spokesman Mahmoud Karaki told the AP. He said 145 of his team members have been wounded over the past year.

Lebanon’s health ministry has said nine hospitals and 45 health care centers have been damaged during that time.

Hours after the Friday attack outside Marjayoun hospital, another hospital in the southern town of Bint Jbeil was shelled by Israeli forces after receiving a warning to evacuate. Nine members of the medical and nursing staff at Salah Ghandour Hospital were wounded, most of them seriously.

The hospital later shut down because of the damage.

A truck and ambulance burn after Israeli airstrikes hit a group of paramedics outside a hospital in Marjayoun, south Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo)

A truck and ambulance burn after Israeli airstrikes hit a group of paramedics outside a hospital in Marjayoun, south Lebanon, Friday, Oct. 4, 2024. (AP Photo)