Argentine Milei mobilises Venezuelan opposition despite Maduro’s ‘ugly’ attacks

Argentine President Javier Milei has become a powerful ally of Venezuelan anti-government protests amid mounting international pressure to concede victory to the opposition in the recent presidential election.

Leaders from around the world, including the United States, have questioned Nicolas Maduro’s claims of an election victory, with protesters clashing with police in the streets of the war-torn South American nation.

“He was very, very helpful and was kind of a unifying voice in South America, allowing him, along with the left, to oppose the healing work and kind of get other democracies to recognize Edmundo as president,” Daniel Acosta Rivas, an OSINT analyst, told Fox News Digital.

Rivas said Milea’s vocal support “poured into Venezuela and especially into the diaspora.”

Milei was one of the first world leaders to speak out after the Maduro-controlled National Electoral Council certified the incumbent president by an alleged 51 percent margin, compared to the opposition’s 44 percent. Pre-election polls (which are illegal in the country) showed opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez receiving twice as many votes as Maduro.

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The United States ultimately recognized Gonzalez as the winner after saying it had reviewed the results sheets, but Milei immediately denounced the election result as “a fraud conducted and perpetrated by dictator Nicolás Maduro.”

“He may believe he has won the battle,” Milei said. “But the most important thing is that the Venezuelan lions have woken up and sooner or later socialism will end.”

Milei stressed that Argentina “will not admit to a new fraud” and called on Venezuela’s armed forces “to defend democracy and the will of the people this time,” pointing to “data” that showed “a crushing victory for the opposition.”

Protesters took to the streets and were met with brutal police repression as Maduro tried to press his victory, drawing international condemnation. Milei continued to encourage and support protesters in their fight against Maduro.

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Maduro attacked Milei earlier this week, shooting the Argentine multiple times. He referred to Milei’s “monstrous face” and called him “an ugly guy and also stupid.”

He also called Milei a “Nazi, fascist,” demanding to know how anyone could take “a guy like that seriously,” according to the Buenos Aires Herald. He also called Milei a “cowardly worm” and a “traitor to the fatherland.”

“These people said no to wild capitalism and fascism,” Maduro insisted at a rally outside his party’s headquarters. “From Caracas, Venezuela said no to the Nazi fascist Milei. We are a country of warriors.”

But Maduro’s response has only seemed to mobilize protesters and bolster Milei’s popularity among the opposition. Rivas noted that Maduro has continued to make comments about figures like Milei and Elon Musk — both prominent critics after the election results — in an effort to distract from the election, but that those efforts have only served to highlight him and his policies in a region increasingly dissatisfied with politics as normal in the region.

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“He promoted a right-wing movement or a classic liberal movement all over Latin America,” Rivas said. “You see people being inspired by his message and his rise to leadership… he was virtually unknown outside of libertarian circles before he ran, and other members of the opposition in Argentina had rejected him during the Fernandez-Kirchner government. And now look at him.”

Venezuelans living in exile have spoken glowingly of Milei and his potential impact on the country, while protesters continue to demand an end to the Maduro-Chavez system and a new way of life, perhaps more in line with Milei’s policies. Since taking office earlier this year, Milei, an economist, has tamed runaway inflation in Argentina, balanced the budget and shrunk the size of government.

“Young people tend to adopt socialist ideas; however, those who have lived in these political systems become their greatest opponents,” Esteban Hernández, a Venezuelan journalist in exile in Miami, told Fox News Digital.

“The youth of Venezuela, unlike in other countries, do not support these ideas,” he said. “In fact, we have seen that in countries like the United States and even Argentina, they make efforts to elect those who oppose socialism.”

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“During the last elections in Argentina, for example, we saw many Venezuelans warning residents against voting for Sergio Massa, and many even volunteered to help elect Javier Mileia,” Hernández added.

Franklin Camargo, a Venezuelan activist in exile, told Fox News Digital that “Javier Milei is the best right-wing leader of our generation because he demolishes socialists and the left with philosophical and moral arguments while constantly offering the best defense of individualism, capitalism and freedom.”