Buenos Aires Herald 
President Javier Milei will not attend the leaders’ summit of the Mercosur regional trade bloc that will be held Tuesday in Paraguay, according to reports from local media.
Instead, he will stay in Buenos Aires to attend the appointment of new Chief of Staff Diego Santilli, which will be held on Tuesday afternoon in the presidential palace, the Casa Rosada.
This means Milei will once again avoid an encounter with Brazilian President Lula da Silva, with whom he has a very bad relationship due to ideological differences.
According to Argentine outlets La Nación and Clarín, government sources said Milei would not travel to Paraguay in order to devote himself to working alongside his cabinet and the new chief of staff. However, Clarín stated that the true reason is that he did not want to see Lula.
The Herald contacted the president’s communications team but did not receive a reply at time of writing.
Milei and Da Silva have a history of avoiding each other, and they have never held a bilateral meeting or phone call since becoming presidents.
The last time the two saw each other was in December during a Mercosur summit in Foz de Iguazu, Brazil. A month later, Lula skipped a summit in Asunción, Paraguay, during which the Mercosur-European Union was signed.
Before that, Milei did not attend his first Mercosur summit as president of Argentina in July 2024, in Asunción.
Quirno in Paraguay
Foreign Minister Pablo Quirno is expected to represent the Argentine government in this week’s summit. He is already in Paraguay for a foreign ministers’ meeting scheduled for Monday.
Da Silva is expected to attend the Tuesday meeting alongside fellow leaders Rodrigo Paz (Bolivia), Yamandú Orsi (Uruguay) and host Santiago Peña (Paraguay), who will transfer the pro-tempore presidency of the bloc to his Uruguayan counterpart.
Milei’s decision comes as he welcomed presidential candidate Flávio Bolsonaro, son of convicted ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, at his residence in Olivos on Monday.
Flávio Bolsonaro is Da Silva’s main contender for the Brazilian presidential elections set for October. Milei’s meeting with him adds a new chapter to his feud with Lula.
“The blue wave is coming to Brazil alongside Flávio Bolsonaro…!!!” Milei wrote in an X post, also sharingsharing also a picture of the two of them together. The term “blue wave” refers to a shift to the right in the governments of Latin American countries.
Flávio Bolsonaro and Milei will attend a Latin American leaders conference organized by the Israel Allies Foundation (IAF), to be held in Buenos Aires on Monday evening.
