Milei government appoints a technology firm businessman as ambassador to the United States

FILE - Argentine President Javier Milei speaks during the Conservative Political Action Conference, CPAC 2024, at the National Harbor in Oxon Hill, Maryland, on February 24, 2024.

The government of Javier Milei appointed the founder of technology companies, Alejandro Oxenford, as Argentina's new ambassador to the United States.

The Argentine government appointed businessman Alejandro Oxenford on Tuesday as the new ambassador to the United States, a country with which the far-right president Javier Milei has shown seamless alignment.

The Argentine Foreign Ministry announced the decision, stating that “the experience and commitment” of the businessman, founder of technology companies, “will strengthen bilateral relations and promote fruitful cooperation between both nations.”

Oxenford, for his part, was willing to position Argentina “increasingly better in the USA and the world,” on his X account, formerly Twitter. The businessman was grateful to have “the guidance” of Gerardo Werthein – the last ambassador in Washington and current chancellor of Argentina – “Milei's inspiration and the ideas of freedom as the north.”

The announcement came a week after victory of Republican Donald Trump in the United States elections, which was celebrated by Milei.

Both politicians held a telephone conversation on Tuesday in which, according to Argentine presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni, Trump told the leader of La Libertad Avanza “you are my favorite president.” Milei will travel to the United States on Thursday with the purpose of meet in Florida with the elected president and attend the Conservative Action Political Conference.

Oxenford is a member of the Argentine president's council of economic advisors. He created DeRemate.com, a website for buying and selling, as well as OLX and LetGo, classified ads and online commerce platforms. He is also an investor in the art world.

On the same date that the government announced the new ambassador in Washington, Milei inaugurated the “Meta Day” event in Buenos Aires, reaffirming the government's desire to collaborate with technology companies to position Argentina as a center of artificial intelligence.

Milei praised the impact of technology on society, considering it “the greatest example of the capabilities that human beings have” that allows “unraveling the perverse lies” that, according to him, are spread by the national media.

As part of the event, Meta, the technology company founded by Mark Zuckerberg and owner of Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, presented its open source artificial intelligence model, Llama 3.1, for free use in Argentina.

In journalistic interviews, Oxenford has pointed out that “the future is going to have a lot to do with artificial intelligence, with technologies that are going to give us a lot of strength to develop.”