Argentina and Paraguay deserve a place in the Biden administration’s signature Latin America initiative to increase engagement in the region, according to U.S. Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL).
Without including the Argentines, it will be difficult to achieve the goals set out in the administration’s Americas Partnership for Economic Prosperity (APEP), the congresswoman wrote in a May 21 letter sent to President Joe Biden.
“Today, in Latin America, there is no president with a more pro-freedom agenda than President Javier Milei. President Milei is working to turn around years of economic failure in a country with tremendous but wasted potential,” wrote Rep. Salazar. “Your signature Latin America initiative needs pro-American voices in the region like Argentina and Paraguay in order to prosper.”
The lawmaker pointed out that Argentina is fighting its way out of the “socialist curse” and Milei is giving the country the “tough medicine” it needs right now to get inflation under control and undo decades of socialist mismanagement.
“What Argentina desperately needs now is help from its like-minded allies like the United States to make it through this difficult period,” she wrote.
At the same time, Paraguay should be included in APEP “because it is a great friend of the United States,” wrote Rep. Salazar, who said that adding both countries to the partnership would help it prosper.
“President Biden, please do what is right and include Argentina and Paraguay in APEP with the rest of the United States’ best partners in the region,” she wrote.
Similarly, Rep. Salazar on March 6 sponsored the bipartisan Americas Act, H.R. 7571, alongside lead cosponsor U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-NY) to establish a regional trade, investment, and people-to-people partnership of countries in the Western Hemisphere to stimulate growth and integration through viable long-term, private-sector development.
H.R. 7571, which is under consideration by several committees, would expand the benefits of the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement to nations that share U.S. values in the region, according to a bill summary provided by the lawmaker’s staff.