After she challenged the president’s vehement anti-communist rhetoric against the Cuban regime and voted at the UN to lift the six-decade economic blockade on the Caribbean island, President Javier Milei fired the foreign minister.
According to Argentine sources, the country’s foreign minister was abruptly dismissed for endorsing a resolution in the UN General Assembly that called for lifting the US embargo on Cuba.
The Argentine government condemned the Cuban government and announced Diana Mondino’s retirement in a news release late Wednesday.
“Our country categorically opposes the Cuban dictatorship and will remain steadfast in promoting a foreign policy that condemns all regimes that perpetuate the violation of human rights and individual freedoms,” stated the statement.
Mondino, speaking on behalf of President Javier Milei’s administration at the UN, voted against the United States and Israel, the only other countries that voted in favor of extending the six-decade economic blockade, and joined 187 other countries in voting to lift the embargo on the Caribbean island.
Milei’s vehement anti-communist rhetoric against the Cuban regime was called into question by Mondino’s vote.
Along with Nicolas Maduro of Venezuela, Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua, and Gustavo Petro of Colombia, Milei named Cuban President Miguel Diaz Canel one of the worst Latin American presidents in April.
Milei advocated for sanctions against Cuba and Venezuela in an interview with CNN.
“Yes, I would be willing to do it because the slaughterhouse that Venezuela is truly unheard of, just like the prison island of Cuba,” he replied.
On X, presidential spokesperson Manuel Adorni announced that Gerardo Werthein, a prominent Argentine businessman and part of the Werthein dynasty, has been appointed the country’s new foreign minister. Werthein is currently the country’s ambassador to the United States. Through the Werthein Group holding firm, this family has been at the forefront of the nation’s private sector for a century.
The administration also said in their press statement that when Mondino resigned, the president will examine the Foreign Ministry “to identify drivers of agendas hostile to freedom.”
