Argentine court orders Milei government to distribute held-up food aid

An Argentine court on Monday ordered President Javier Milei’s government to release tonnes of food meant for the poor – about half the population – but held in storage pending an audit he had ordered.

Aid to tens of thousands soup kitchens was frozen after Milei took office in December vowing to slash public spending and weed out corruption in the social welfare system.

Earlier this month, dozens of raids were carried out against soup kitchens and the groups that manage them, amid accusations that the poor were forced to attend anti-government protests in exchange for food.

The protests were allegedly organised to pressure the government into doling out more money and food, part of which never found its way to the intended recipients.

Milei is seeking to eliminate the practice of using NGOs and political parties as intermediaries to deliver state aid and end what he calls “the business of poverty”.

On Monday, a judge granted a request brought by aid organisations, ordering the government to provide a detailed breakdown of the food being withheld, and to proceed with distributing it “immediately”.

The judge cited the vast number of Argentines “acutely suffering from food insecurity”. According to official figures, about 50 per cent of inhabitants of the South American country live in poverty.

While inflation has been slowing, it is still at nearly 290 per cent year-on-year, while manufacturing output has plummeted.

On Sunday, the Catholic Church in Argentina urged the government to distribute the stockpiled food – which it said amounted to about 5,000 tonnes.

Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Monday the government would appeal the court order. The food, he said, was being stored “for emergencies or catastrophes”.

According to social organisations, there are about 45,000 soup kitchens in Argentina.

Meanwhile, Milei was headed to the United States on Monday for the fourth time since taking office in December, meeting tech giants as he seeks to “reposition” his economically troubled country, the government said.

Accompanied by his economy minister, Milei is set to meet representatives of OpenAI, Apple and Google this week, as well as Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Adorni told reporters.

The ultraliberal president will meet “the owners of four of the top 10 companies by market capitalisation in the world in this bid to reposition Argentina globally,” Adorni told reporters.

It is Milei’s seventh trip overall since December, and comes in a week the Senate will be debating his budget-slashing and liberalising economic reform package.

Milei’s last visit abroad, to Spain, unleashed a major diplomatic spat last week after he called the prime minister’s wife “corrupt” at a gathering of far-right leaders in Madrid.

On his last three visits to the United States, Milei twice met tycoon Elon Musk, received a decoration from a Jewish orthodox community and sat down with former US president Donald Trump.