Argentina president faces impeachment calls following cryptocurrency debacle News
President.am, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Argentina president faces impeachment calls following cryptocurrency debacle

Argentina’s political opposition on Saturday called for President Javier Milei to face an impeachment trial in the Chamber of Deputies over his promotion of a cryptocurrency which crashed shortly later.

In a post on X, Milei had recommended a crypto coin named $LIBRA, which plummeted just a few hours later, prompting the president to delete the tweet and raising concerns of a “rug pull,” which is when developers abandon a legitimate project after assets’ values rise and leave investors and participants with tokens that have no value.

Esteban Paulón, a member of the Chamber of Deputies, and two other lawmakers submitted a written request to the Chamber alleging that Milei has “displayed poor performance and potential crimes committed in the exercise of his duties,” citing Article 53 of the Constitution. Paulon noted that Milei cannot investigate himself and thus must come in front of the lawmakers.

Article 53 of the Constitution of Argentina notes that the Chamber of Deputies has the right to bring charges against the president in cases of “alleged poor performance, committing an offense in carrying out their duties, or for common crimes.” According to the article, two-thirds of the members must agree in order to bring charges against such high-ranking officials.

The President’s Office issued a statement saying that Milei was not involved in developing the cryptocurrency, and he deleted the post only to avoid speculation and avoid further attention.

The statement added that President Milei decided to involve the Anti-Corruption Office and to create a Research Task Unit to determine whether other government officials were involved in misconduct and to investigate the financial activities of $LIBRA.

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