Buenos Aires Herald 
A video posted by President Javier Milei depicting Kirchnerists as virus-infected zombies has caused outrage all over the political spectrum, with critics pointing to the dangers of dehumanizing political rivals.
“Twelve years ago, the KU-K12 initiated the destruction of Argentina,” says an AI-generated voice in the video that shows images of Walking Dead-like zombies. Those appearing in the footage have also been modified to show them with the faces of opposition members.
“Not only did it destroy bodies, but also minds. Those infected lost all ability to think by themselves, trapped in a blindness state that completely consumed them,” says the video, while featuring images of politicians as well as popular entertainers. Among them are former presidents Cristina Kirchner and Alberto Fernández, former Economy Minister and presidential candidate Sergio Massa, as well as education union leader Roberto Baradel, singer Fito Páez and actress Florencia Peña.
The video goes on to say that Argentina is “in ruins” thanks to the virus, but that “some have resisted, hidden in the shadows, waiting for the day the virus can no longer spread.”
“The illness has not disappeared, but it can no longer infect others, it has become vulnerable, and in the midst of destruction a new hope was born,” says the video at the end, while showing a lion walking through a destroyed city.
Milei shared the video on Thursday, thanking “all of those who have opened their eyes.”
Critics have pointed out that the video follows patterns used by others in history seeking to portray their rivals and enemies as carriers of a virus that needs to be stopped. Chief among them are the Nazis and Adolf Hitler, who in his 1925 autobiographical manifesto Mein Kampf referred to Jews as “parasites that spread like a bacillus.”
Buenos Aires province governor Axel Kicillof said that the virus metaphor had been used many times and that it “has led to the worst atrocities being committed in its name.”
Natalia Zaracho, a deputy who appears in the video and worked collecting cardboard boxes and other recyclable items before becoming an elected official, also responded to the president. “Milei, thousands of people’s futures were condemned with the crisis created by the economic model you represent in the 90s and 2001,” she said in a post on X. “You are ridiculous.”
Deputy Martín Tetaz, from center party Unión Cívica Radical, called the video “deplorable” and “fascist.”
“Ideas, despite how absurd or wrong they may seem, are not an illness,” he said.
Even a Milei supporter, Deputy Lourdes Arrieta, shared a subtle piece of criticism while sharing Milei’s video: “And then they try to shut us lions up.” Arrieta recently left ruling coalition La Libertad Avanza over a scandal in which she and other LLA deputies visited convicted dictatorship-era criminals. She tried to distance herself from it by saying she was tricked into going there and exposing chats she shared with her fellow lawmakers about not only the visit but also alleged plans to give them prison benefits.
