Argentina’s ‘Madman’: Inside the world of Javier Milei
Otacon Party, a regular event for anime and manga fans held at the Galicia Centre in Buenos Aires, has never been known for being overtly political. Attendees buy comic books and Pikachu plushies, and sing karaoke, often dressed in colourful costumes. But at the February 2019 ev
Otacon Party, a regular event for anime and manga fans held at the Galicia Centre in Buenos Aires, has never been known for being overtly political. Attendees buy comic books and Pikachu plushies, and sing karaoke, often dressed in colourful costumes.
But at the February 2019 event, one cosplayer stood out among the rest.
“I am General Ancap,” declared the masked figure in a black-and-yellow superhero outfit, wielding a giant sceptre.
“My mission is to kick the asses of the Keynesian and collectivist sons-of-bitches who want to screw up our lives.”
While most superheroes are content enough fighting mutants or evil geniuses with doomsday devices, General Ancap (short for anarcho-capitalism) – or to use his true identity, the radical economist Javier Milei – considered the government itself a criminal enterprise.
Four years later, General Ancap became the president of Argentina.
Milei tends to be theatrical, and his public appearance – signature lambchop sideburns and wild hair – is no less iconic than that of his superhero alter-ego. The larger-than-life pundit-turned-president has a reputation for being eccentric, from swinging a chainsaw around at rallies to telepathically talking to his deceased dogs.
“All of us who know him know that he is not a balanced person,” Mariano Fernández, an economist at the University of CEMA (UCEMA) in Buenos Aires, told Al Jazeera. Fernández knew the president from their time together in academia in 2005 until Milei entered politics around 2020.
