Gerardo Werthein faces Olympian challenge grading Argentina's foreign service

Gerardo Werthein, Argentina’s new foreign minister, may be an honorary president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), but his new post looks set to provide him with his most Olympian challenge yet.

Werthein, 68, was named Wednesday as Argentina's top diplomat after the portfolio’s chief, Diana Mondino, was ejected at top speed. 

President Jaiver Milei, according to reports, was in no mood to forgive Argentina’s stance at the United Nations earlier that day, when it voted to condemn the six-decade-long US trade embargo against Cuba.

Within hours, Mondino was gone.

The UN vote marked the first time since Milei’s arrival in office that Argentina had not aligned with the US government or Israel. While presented as a contradiction of the libertarian administration’s stance on the Cuban regime, it is also the 32nd time in a row that Argentina’s UN representation has voted in this way.

The row illustrates the difficulties of steering Argentina’s foreign policy at a time when Milei is proclaiming stances that run contrary to the multilateral plans of much of the international community. 

There is also unrest among the foreign service, with the diplomatic corps being told to “withdraw” from the government if they are unable to toe Milei’s line.

The President has also vowed to “audit” the foreign service – and the new man will surely have some say in how diplomatic staff are to be graded.

Werthein, the new boss at the Palacio San Martín, will now have to navigate those choppy waters. 

He will do so amid a changing of the guard. 

Mondino had been weakened recently by the resignation of two key figures: her deputy Leopoldo Sahores and UN Ambassador Ricardo Lagorio, two long-serving diplomats with vast experience.

The former foreign minister’s relationship with the members of Milei’s “iron triangle” – the top trio that includes the President, his sister Karina and spin doctor Santiago Caputo – had been hanging on by a thread for months. 

Mondino lost power and responsibility as time went on and Werthein will hope to reverse that trend.

He already has the President’s confidence and accompanied Milei on trips to the United States before last December’s inauguration. 

Underlining his commitment to the libertarian cause, Werthein even paid the air fare for a trip on a private jet.

Underlining his importance to the libertarian administration, the new foreign minister has participated in every trip taken by Milei to the United States since taking office.

He had a key role in the last trip to New York, when Milei addressed the UN General Assembly, visited the Wall Street stock exchange and met up with billionaire Elon Musk.

After the election, on Milei’s first overseas trip as president-elect, Werthein was also by the La Libertad Avanza leader’s side as he visited the tomb of a famous rabbi in New York.

The ambassador also organised Milei’s meetings in the Big Apple with political and business leaders, including former US president Bill Clinton.

In an interview with the LN+ television channel after that trip, Werthein said that Milei had told all comers about his plan to “set Argentina on the road with definite solutions to bring forward a country whose current situation is not successful.”

Family history

Argentina’s new top diplomat has had a varied career, though he is best known as a businessman. 

A doctor in veterinary medicine, Werthein has been involved in various sectors, including the media, agriculture, energy, telecommunications, real estate, the food industry and healthcare. 

A keen horse-rider and golfer, he is a member of the International Olympic Committee (COI) and Olympic Broadcasting Services (OBS), who previously headed Argentina’s local Olympic committee. Back in July, he was elected for a new term as IOC vice-president.

The known origins of the Werthein family go back to 1904 when Leon Werthein fled to Argentina from czarist Russia with his wife Anna in the midst of the Russo-Japanese War and fierce anti-Semitic hostility.

In his first steps in this country, Leon opened up a business specialising in the sale of cattle, fruit, seeds, agro-chemicals and fuel.

The Werthein surname would go on to represent one of the biggest business conglomerates in the country and wider continent. Over the next century Leon’s heirs developed Grupo Werthein, a holding company with a track record spanning back 90 years and several generations of the family. 

Until he left the firm, Argentina’s brand-new foreign minister was the public face of Grupo Werthein, especially during the period in which the fund owned Telecom Argentina SA, where Gerardo served as vice-president prior to its sale to Grupo Clarín.

Now separate from the family clan, the new foreign minister is the owner of Haras El Carpincho and the figure behind the many equestrian parties bringing the rich, famous and powerful together. 

Werthein is also a shareholder in the Uruguayan newspaper El Observador, in partnership with Gabriel Hochbaum.