Venezuela’s Maduro: Javier Milei WEF Speech a ‘Shameful’ Expression of ‘Nazi Ideology’

CARACAS, Venezuela — Socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro lashed out against Argentine President Javier Milei on Thursday evening over Milei’s condemnation of socialism during his participation at the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland.

In an official event broadcast by state-owned media, Maduro claimed that Milei’s WEF speech was “shameful” and described its contents as “the expression of his Nazi ideology.” Maduro has repeatedly called Milei a “Nazi,” offering no evidence for his insult and disregarding Milei’s support of the state of Israel and public affinity for Judaism.

“The Argentine people should be saddened, ashamed, indignant, because of Javier Milei’s mess at the Davos Summit. A disgrace, an expression of his Nazi ideology, McCarthyism. It is a lie that he is a liberalist, liberal, libertarian,” Maduro said.

“The businessmen of the world, the capitalists, the capitalists of the world and the governments of the West were stupefied when he accused the entire West of being communist, of being socialist,” he continued. “Anyone who does not think like him is a communist and must be exterminated from the face of the earth. That is Nazi thinking.”

Milei participated this week in the annual gathering of the World Economic Forum in Davos, delivering a roughly 20-minute speech in which he fiercely condemned socialism, explained how socialism ultimately leads to poverty, and issued a concise warning that the Western world is in danger from leftists who have co-opted government institutions meant to uphold Western ideals to further their socialist agendas.

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“I am here today to tell you that the West is in danger. It is in danger because those who are supposed to uphold the values of the West find themselves co-opted by a worldview that inexorably leads to socialism, and consequently, to poverty,” Milei said at the opening of his speech.

The widely praised speech has since then gone viral across social media platforms and been the subject of several unofficial translations, ranging from traditional audio translations to artificial-intelligence-generated versions that translate Milei’s original Spanish-language speech.

Maduro’s rant on Thursday was not the first time that he condemned the Argentine president. Maduro has repeatedly used Venezuela’s state media and his own shows and podcasts to disparage the neighboring leader.

The attacks began days after Milei was elected president in November, when Maduro accused him of being a “neo-Nazi” and a “threat” to Latin America. Maduro claimed that Milei, a libertarian economist, intended to lead a “colonial project for all of Latin America and the Caribbean.”

Maduro claimed this week that Milei is “a fatal error in the history of Argentina,” an assertion he made during his yearly address to the National Assembly.

“I do not expect you to rectify, but I do want this message to reach you, that you are wrong. You are a mistake in the history of Latin America, Milei, a fatal mistake in the history of Argentina,” Maduro said.

“You are wrong, Milei. You who were put in Argentina to destroy the rule of law, to destroy the State, to destroy all social, labor rights, to destroy the national economy and to colonize Argentina and deliver it on its knees to US imperialism,” he continued.

Milei responded to Maduro’s accusations through social media, joking that he did not expect “such praise” from Venezuela’s socialist dictator.

“I did not expect such praise! Impoverishing socialist Maduro saying that I am a historical mistake in Latin America confirms that we are on the right path! Long live liberty, damn it!” Milei’s message read.

Venezuela’s socialist regime, first under late socialist dictator Hugo Chávez and now under Maduro, has been a longstanding ideological ally of Argentina’s Kirchnerism — a left-wing Peronist movement named after late President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and his wife, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who succeeded her husband as president until 2015. Fernández de Kirchner also served as vice president between 2019 and 2023 under the presidency of Alberto Fernández (no relation), who served before Milei.

Milei defeated Kirchnerism’s 2023 presidential candidate, former socialist Economy Minister Sergio Massa, by more than 11 points in November’s runoff election.

According to Hugo Carvajal, Chávez’s former spymaster, the late dictator was a key financier of Fernández de Kirchner’s 2007 presidential campaign. After Néstor Kirchner passed away in 2010, Chávez commissioned a “Néstor Kirchner” lounge still used as a meeting room for the socialist regime’s ministers.

Chávez also provided significant financial aid to Argentina under Néstor Kirchner’s presidency, having bought $5.5 billion worth of Argentine public debt bonds under dubious interest rate terms that allowed both Chávez and Kirchner to allegedly embezzle large cash benefits between 2005 and 2007.

Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.