Argentine president Javier Milei escalated his rhetoric against journalists on Friday, singling out veteran investigative reporter and ICIJ member Hugo Alconada Mon along with four other reporters as “mercenaries of lies” and suggesting they should be “burned at the stake.”
Journalists associations in the country leapt to their colleagues’ defense, calling the remarks a “death threat” and asking the United Nations special rapporteur for freedom of expression to intervene. The remarks took place at a private, livestreamed event after a judge dropped a fraud investigation into Milei and his sister that was propelled by reporting into the so-called ‘$Libra scandal.’
In 2025, the president posted on the social media platform X about $Libra coin, a cryptocurrency available for trade in Argentina, saying it would help finance small businesses. The price skyrocketed and then fell sharply after the president deleted his post, causing significant losses to some investors.
Journalists, including Alconada Mon, subsequently reported ties between the creators of $Libra, Milei and his sister, Karina Milei, dating back to 2024, prompting investors to file a complaint accusing the president and his sister of fraud and influence peddling.
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