As President Milei toils to stir the Argentine economy away from decades of Perónist malaise, he is also working to wean his country — and the rest of Latin America — from a habit of reflexively opposing el Norte. It will not be easy. Other Latin leaders, like Brazil’s Lula da Silva, are of the cigar-and-beret Cuban tradition. Worse: Communist China is hungry for Argentine beef and minerals, and is making inroads elsewhere in the hemisphere. 

The contrast between the foreign policies of South America’s most consequential leaders can’t be starker. “I did not say the word holocaust,” Mr. da Silva said this week when given the opportunity to retract a previous statement that outraged Israelis. Well, maybe. He merely likened Israel’s defensive war in Gaza to “when Hitler decided to kill the Jews.” The Leftist Brazilian still insists the Israelis are committing “genocide.”

Mr. Milei’s first foreign trip was to Israel, where he displayed solidarity, prayed at Jerusalem’s Western Wall, and vowed to move the Argentinian embassy to Israel’s capital from Tel Aviv. Today he posted on X the Hebrew biblical text of God’s instructions to Moses during the Ten Commandments saga. Above it, the Argentine wrote in Spanish “Viva La Libertad” or “Long Live Freedom.”  There were some expletives for emphasis.

Mr. Milei’s affinity for Israel and Jews as antisemitism is growing across the globe is but one feature that contrasts the new Argentinian president’s courage from the lack thereof among other Latin leaders. Presidents Lula of Brazil and Lopez Obrador of Mexico sheepishly preach “neutrality” on the war in Europe, while Mr. Milei bravely stands against Russian aggression. Mr. Milei now vows to convene a Latin American summit in support of Ukraine.

His priority, he explained, is forming an alliance with “countries that defend freedom.” We’ve called them the freedom countries. He specifically named Ukraine, Israel, and America. Ending Latin America’s old Yankee-bashing, though, could prove difficult. It follows more than a decade in which Beijing, Russia, and other foes of America have eyed the hemisphere. They were surprised that Washington’s pushback amounted to zilch.  

In mid 2017, Communist China’s trade with South and Latin America surpassed the United States’s for the first time. That trend accelerated during President Biden’s years. By 2022, America’s $296.74 billion annual trade with our hemisphere was eclipsed by Communist China’s $351.06 billion. Beijing’s interest in this side of the ocean is driven by a thirst for minerals that fuel new technologies. Argentina, for one, is a top producer of lithium. 

“We don’t make deals with communists,” Mr. Milei said on the campaign trail last summer, listing the regimes at Havana, Managua, Caracas, Pyongyang, and Beijing. Yet, the president’s predecessors have left Argentina broke and in heavy debt, and Beijing has lent Argentina $17 billion that needs to be repaid. Chinese enterprises are also the largest investors in Argentina’s mining of lithium, an ingredient in electric vehicle batteries. 

America is trying to muscle in on the lithium market, which Communist China has long dominated. Meanwhile, Mr. Milei doesn’t lack for a political antenna. Even as he hopes for America to catch up, he has softened his verbal condemnation of Mr. Xi’s China. Yet the much-maligned Argentine is America’s best hope for repairing alliances that once underlined the Monroe doctrine. Mr. Milei’s liberty-cheering at times seems to eclipse ours.