Hello, and welcome to the Latin America Weekly newsletter! In this issue: Javier Milei beat the odds in Argentina’s primaries. The Mexican peso has been the strongest currency in the region. And Nicaragua’s Daniel Ortega is moving against universities.
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How the Milei voter base surprised Buenos Aires
The victory of libertarian economist Javier Milei in Argentina’s Sunday primaries was reminiscent of the defeat of Chile’s left-wing constitutional reform last year, wherein the vote for the right-wing option correlated with distance from the capital.
- Mr. Milei won in 16 of 24 provinces, but his worst performance was in Buenos Aires city — with only 18 percent of the vote — followed by the two districts closest to the capital: Entre Ríos (22 percent) and Buenos Aires province (24 percent).
Capital punishment. Results in Chile brought talk of how elites from its capital, Santiago, were out of touch with the rest of the country and ignored its main concerns: crime, migration, economic freedom, and executive overreach.
- Similarly, no one is more shocked...