President Javier Milei echoed Trumpian criticisms of the UN company, blaming it for financial shortfalls through the COVID-19 pandemic.
Argentina has declared it can withdraw from the World Well being Group, additional imperilling a world company charged with coordinating public well being responses.
The announcement on Wednesday echoes a comparable transfer final month from the USA.
Far-right administrations presently govern each international locations, and President Javier Milei of Argentina has an in depth relationship along with his US counterpart, Donald Trump.
The 2 leaders have every criticised the World Well being Group for its dealing with of the COVID-19 pandemic.
A United Nations company, the organisation can not mandate governments to observe its steerage, however it does supply analysis and suggestions for the way international locations may collaborate to handle public well being crises like pandemics.
Nonetheless, on Wednesday, Milei blamed the World Well being Group for its recommendation about bodily distancing through the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That’s the reason we have now determined to go away such a nefarious group that was the executing arm of what was the best experiment in social management in historical past,” Milei wrote on social media.
He punctuated his message with a marketing campaign slogan: “LONG LIVE FREEDOM, DAMN IT.”
Milei was elected in 2023 amid spiralling inflation in Argentina. A darkish horse within the race, he ran on a platform of slashing authorities bills along with his signature “chainsaw” method.
He has described himself as an “anarcho-capitalist”. However whereas month-to-month inflation has stabilised underneath his management, Argentina’s poverty price has climbed to upwards of fifty %.
Critics have blasted his administration for chopping key public providers over the previous yr that may have assist handle this disaster, together with funding for soup kitchens that present meals for the poor.
Argentina contributes roughly $8.257m to the World Well being Group, as of 2024.
In an official authorities information launch, nonetheless, Milei’s administration accused the organisation of heightening Argentina’s financial disaster.
“Quarantines triggered one of many biggest financial catastrophes in world historical past,” the official assertion learn.
It alleged that self-distancing fashions ran afoul of the Rome Statute of 1998, which establishes the Worldwide Legal Court docket’s jurisdiction over key worldwide crimes, like genocide and crimes towards humanity.
The WHO’s steerage about self-isolating, Milei’s authorities argued, was itself against the law towards humanity.
“In our nation, the WHO supported a authorities that left youngsters out of faculty, lots of of hundreds of employees with out earnings, led companies and SMEs [small- and medium-sized enterprises] to chapter, and nonetheless price us 130,000 lives,” its assertion stated.
Milei’s authorities additionally questioned the integrity of the World Well being Group’s analysis.
“At present the proof signifies that the WHO’s recipes don’t work as a result of they’re the results of political affect, not primarily based on science,” the assertion stated.
The heated rhetoric was a mirrored image of Trump’s comparable order on January 20.
Hours after he was inaugurated right into a second time period as US president, Trump signed an government order rescinding US funding from the World Well being Group, alleging a “mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic”.
Trump additionally accused the company of an “incapacity to show independence from the inappropriate political affect of WHO member states”.
The US is the one greatest contributor to the World Well being Group’s finances, accountable for 14.4 % of its finances or near $1bn. Its withdrawal is anticipated to trigger cost-cutting — and potential rollbacks of providers.