Argentine President Javier Milei once again used Cuba as an example of a political and economic model that Argentina should avoid, as he concluded his speech before the Council of the Americas in Buenos Aires on Thursday.
"I continue to place my trust in the Argentinians who do not want to return to the past and do not want to become like Cuba," the leader stated at the end of a presentation focused on defending the economic results of his initial years in office.
The statement was made during the 23rd edition of the conference "Argentina: Economic and Political Perspectives," organized by Americas Society/Council of the Americas (AS/COA) and the Argentine Chamber of Commerce and Services, at the Alvear Palace Hotel in the Argentine capital, according to Forbes Argentina.
The mention of the island came at the end of a speech in which Milei repeatedly contrasted his economic reform agenda with the policies of his opponents and reaffirmed the direction of his administration as a break from what he calls Argentina's "past."
Milei defends his economic figures
The president dedicated a significant portion of his speech to defending the performance of his administration since he took office in December 2023.
Among the figures presented, he affirmed that the ratio of debt to Gross Domestic Product (GDP)—excluding the debt within the public sector itself—fell from around 100% when he took office to less than 40%.
He also highlighted the reduction in country risk and stated that the indicator dropped from around 3,000 basis points at the beginning of his term to a range of between 450 and 500 points.
The figure mentioned by Milei contrasts slightly with the movements recorded in the previous days. Market data cited by Infobae placed the indicator at 512 points on August 18, after it once again surpassed the 500 barrier.
Milei attributed that volatility to the uncertainty created by his political opponents and not to the policies of his administration.
"We are in a political context where the opposing side is only trying to break everything," he stated.
The president also stated that Argentina grew by 4% during the last year and that in his first two years in office, it achieved a ten percentage point expansion. He placed unemployment at 7.8% and claimed that his administration lifted 14 million Argentines out of poverty.
"The prebendaries have to break."
The head of state also sent a stern message to businesses that rely on protections, subsidies, or privileges granted by the government, whom he commonly refers to as "privileged."
"The prebendaries must break," he declared.
Milei also defended Argentina's trade openness and described the country he inherited upon assuming the Presidency as "the most closed market in the world" and "a prison."
In the energy sector, he projected a significant increase in exports over the coming years and assured that the country could quintuple them, identifying it as one of the areas where his government has the highest growth expectations and potential for foreign currency influx.
Cuba, a recurring reference in Milei's discourse
Cuba has become a recurring reference for Milei, both to attack his internal opponents and to question the regime in Havana.
In July, during an event at the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, he responded to a critic with a “If you don't like it, go to Cuba”.
A month earlier, during an interview with Cuban journalist Ismael Calá, he predicted that “Cuba is going to end up collapsing on its own” and linked a potential collapse of the regime to the loss of Venezuelan oil support and the pressure exerted by the administration of Donald Trump.
His predictions about the political future of the island have been even more specific.
In March, during a visit to Hungary, Milei affirmed that "surely by mid-year we will see a free Cuba".
That deadline passed without the political change predicted by the Argentine president occurring, although Milei has continued to publicly assert that the Cuban regime is experiencing a situation of increasing weakness.
The stance has also been reflected in Buenos Aires' foreign policy. Since taking office at Casa Rosada, Milei has maintained a distant relationship with the governments of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua, countries where Argentina has not appointed ambassadors, and in October 2025, his government voted against the annual United Nations resolution calling for an end to the U.S. embargo on the island.
The choice of venue for his new reference to Cuba is also significant. The Council of the Americas brings together business leaders, executives, and investors with interests in Latin America, so Milei's message this time transcended the confrontation with his opponents within Argentina.
In that audience, the president once again resorted to one of the comparisons that have characterized his political discourse: presenting Cuba as the destination that, according to him, Argentina would have faced if it had not abandoned the previous economic and political model.
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