Five giant dogs are the only issue that Javier Milei won’t touch
The world's most famous dogs this week all belong to Javier Milei – just don't ask him about them...
Almost nothing is taboo for Javier Milei: Ask him about Argentina’s Central Bank, and he’ll say it’s “the worst garbage that exists on this Earth.” China? It’s an “assassin.” The sale of guns and organs? They should be legalised.
But don’t you dare ask him about his beloved “four-legged sons,” five 200-pound English Mastiffs that have been catapulted into the popular imagination this week along with Argentina’s leading — and unlikely — presidential candidate.
Following a two-hour interview with Bloomberg News Wednesday in Buenos Aires, Milei bluntly refused to answer any questions about the canine members of his family.
The longtime bachelor showed no such reticence following his stunning upset in Argentina’s primary election on Sunday, when the dogs were among the first to be thanked in his victory speech.
“Thank you to Conan, Murray, Milton, Robert and Lucas!” Milei said as he grinned Sunday night to roaring applause at his campaign headquarters.
The names are references to economists that have shaped Milei’s ultra-libertarian world view: Murray Rothbard, Milton Friedman and Robert Lucas. Conan the Barbarian may not be a famous economist, but he certainly evokes the macho aesthetic that’s also part of the Milei persona.
Milei has previously said he survived on only pizza during a tough economic period in order to make sure his first dog — Conan — had enough to eat.
A recent biography titled El loco, or "the crazy one," recounts how Milei cloned Conan following his death — which he hid for years — and claims that he communicates with the dog through a mystic.
Milei has kept the dogs in a kennel outside Buenos Aires during his campaign, but designed his schedule so he could spend time with them.
related news
-
Mercedes Marcó del Pont: Argentina is disregarding the state's role in attracting investment
-
Private-sector investment suffers biggest fall of Milei government yet
-
First 'extreme' solar storm in 20 years brings spectacular auroras to Ushuaia
-
Elisa Carrió: ‘Friends say to me please don’t speak out – no, I won’t be complicit’
-
Javier Milei: in love with the ‘cowboy caste’
-
Elon Musk meets José Mayans
-
Contradictions and multitudes
-
YPF’s US$2.5-billion shale oil pipeline moves ahead after approval
-
Argentina shifts historic position on Palestine as UN member state
-
Alex Blania: ‘In the next few years, thousands of humans will fall deeply in love with an AI’