MILEI, BENEGAS LYNCH AND THE PAIN OF SHOTS IN THE FOOT​

No government is immune to unforced errors. Fernández’s government proved it better than any other. But the current government is on a roll.

It is difficult for a government not to shoot itself -or several- in the foot. The problem is when the bullets accumulate and make it difficult to stand still. Let the Fernández administration, which elevated unforced self-flagellation to the category of art, say so.

Javier Milei’s administration is no exception. From the defense of child labor by Congressman Benegas Lynch (grandson), to the President’s own quotation of invented numbers in a fake account of X, at this rate the libertarians could end up leading the historical ranking.

The Jumbo Bot episode reveals an unforgivable lightness. Let’s remember: that account of the former Twitter had become a reference for the ruling party because it reflected alleged price reductions in that supermarket chain, to such an extent that it was alluded to by Milei and by the Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, as an example of how well the fight against inflation was going.

“Jumbo Bot is giving -5%”, Caputo boasted before Joni Viale in TN. “Falling prices! Fantino… falling prices!”, said Milei, on Monday, in a chat with the ex-football reporter when he saw the data published by the account on the screen.

Unfortunately, it was all lies. “This account is a social experiment. It never analyzed prices, nor was there any bot that followed Jumbo’s products. But it did serve for one thing: to see the need that many have to show results that reality denies them,” wrote those responsible for it on Monday night. A little joke for Tinelli, they would have said in another time.

Both Caputo and Milei -especially the latter, who is a heavy user- should know by now that one should not blindly trust what the networks say. But, above all, they should learn that their responsibility as public officials obliges them to be more careful than the average with what they say and what they repeat. If they were equally superficial with other issues it would be downright dangerous.

Bertie’s sincericide, on the other hand, is worse.

“I don’t believe in compulsory education. It is a parental responsibility. You want to give your child the best. And many times it can happen, especially in Argentina, that you cannot afford to send your child to school because you need him/her to be in the workshop with the father working”, said Alberto Tiburcio Benegas Lynch (n) on Sunday.

A proposal almost in line with those that cost Milei so much in the campaign when he spoke of a market for buying and selling organs and children.

The libertarian legislator received, as is obvious, immediate and almost unanimous criticism. He was defended by his father, Alberto Benegas Lynch (h). “As Lincoln used to say, when he was a boy he had to help in the forest and then axe to survive. If he had been forced to go to school, he would not have been president or anything else, because he would have perished”, wrote the economist and one of the President’s progenitors. And, as Milei would later do, he argued that his “dear Bertie” was taken out of context.

However, as Lincoln’s example makes clear, Benegas Lynch (h) actually thinks the same as his son, Benegas Lynch (n). What would be the correct context?

Beyond the fact that child labor began to be prohibited in the world in the mid-nineteenth century, and that in Argentina Law 26.390, of 2008, expressly states in its Article 189 bis that children between 14 and 16 years old may work in family businesses up to 15 hours a week, in tasks that are not arduous, dangerous or unhealthy, as long as they continue going to school, the idea of Benegas Lynch father and son clashes head-on with Law 1420 of compulsory education promoted by one of the icons of this government, Julio Argentino Roca.

As recalled from all the political arc (the sticks rained from Myriam Bregman to Sandra Pittovello), compulsory education was imposed in Argentina by the liberals who founded the country, among them Roca, Avellaneda and obviously Sarmiento. They already understood something that today statistics inexorably prove: rich countries are the best educated. Always.

There is something else: Benegas Lynch’s statements enclose his notion that the father has absolute power to decide the son’s destiny. As if he owned him. Curious that people who are usually furious anti-abortionists do not think about the rights of the child.

The Benegas affair revealed another complicated conception of the President. Milei first thought that his deputy’s phrase was “unfortunate”, but he did not condemn him openly. He sustained one of his greatest hits: “Liberals are not a herd and everyone has their own opinion”. It is a trick phrase: it sounds good, but it serves to justify, literally, anything.

The President, in addition, took the opportunity to argue against journalism. “There are media to which one should not go”, he said. It is a disturbing definition. Beyond the fact that there are militants who practice journalism, it should not be forgotten that the most basic thing to exercise this profession is to ask uncomfortable questions.

Nobody likes them, but they are essential.

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PABLO VACA is the editor-in-chief of the Argentine daily Clarín. He is a member of EditoRed.

This article was originally published in Clarín, with whose authorization we reproduce it here.