Argentina's new president Javier Milei closes Ministry of Culture on first full day in office

Javier Milei, Argentina's newly inaugurated president, eliminated the Ministry of Culture within 24 hours of taking office. The right-wing libertarian transferred its reduced budget and functions to a newly created Ministry of Health and Human Capital. This consolidation also absorbed the former Ministries of Health, Social Development, Education, Labour, and Women, Gender and Diversity. Sandra Pettovello, a former television producer and loyalist to Milei, will lead this expanded ministry. During his campaign, Milei famously demonstrated his plans by tearing stickers labeled with ministry names off a whiteboard, shouting "Out!" as he discarded each one. He specifically referred to the Ministry of Education as the "Ministry of Indoctrination." In November, facing severe long-term inflation, voters gave Milei 56 percent of the vote, defeating center-left finance minister Sergio Massa, who received 44 percent. The appointment ceremony for the new ministers on Monday was conducted privately, without television coverage and with press access prohibited, marking a departure from a tradition maintained since Argentina's return to democracy forty years ago.