The president of Argentina, Javier Milei, dismissed the Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino, this Wednesday, after Buenos Aires voted in favor of ending the economic embargo imposed by the United States on Cuba in the United Nations General Assembly.
“Chancellor Diana Mondino has presented her resignation from the position of Minister of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship. In her place, the current ambassador to the United States, Gerardo Werthein, will take over, who will lead the continuity of the transformation in the foreign policy of our country. country,” the Argentine Government said in a statement.
The Milei Executive has defended that because Argentina “is going through a period of profound changes”, it is necessary that “the values of freedom, sovereignty and individual rights that characterize Western democracies” be reflected in the diplomatic corps.
“Our country is categorically opposed to the Cuban dictatorship and will remain firm in promoting a foreign policy that condemns all regimes that perpetuate the violation of Human Rights and individual freedoms,” he added.
Likewise, he has assured that he will defend these principles in “all international forums” and has reported that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will carry out “a personnel audit” of the portfolio “with the objective of identifying promoters of agendas that are enemies of freedom.” .
Since 1992, Cuba has sought to demonstrate at the UN the widespread international distrust of the “blockade” and has once again obtained the support this Wednesday of 187 countries before the United Nations General Assembly, including Argentina. Only two delegations have voted against: the United States and Israel.
Milei and Mondino’s relationship was already tense. The Foreign Minister was recently involved in a controversy due to the dissemination of a statement in which she called the Malvinas, islands whose sovereignty Buenos Aires claims, with the English term Falklands.
The statement, already removed from the website – where a message appeared indicating that “this page or the site is not available” – included a meeting between Mondino and the vice president of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). ), Gilles Carbonier.
After the criticism, the Foreign Minister addressed the controversy on her account on the social network
“The Malvinas are, were and will always be Argentine. We are working to recover them,” stressed the Foreign Minister, who promised at the beginning of October to recover the islands after the United Kingdom returned sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago to Mauritius.
Sources familiar with the vote this Wednesday before the UN General Assembly have told the newspaper ‘La Nación’ that Argentina’s support for Cuba has occurred precisely due to a strategic calculation for a possible future vote regarding the Falklands conflict. .