The Argentine economy added a new chapter of controversy after complaints about the role of Scott Bessent, Secretary of the United States Treasury, in the financial operation that followed the announcement of the North American bailout. According to journalist Ari Lijalad and an investigation by The UncoveringBessent would have brought dollars into the country, exchanged them for pesos, placed them in Treasury instruments with favorable conditions and, shortly after, withdrawn with foreign currency again, leaving debt in the Central Bank.
The episode arises after the victory of progressive Mayor Zohran Mamdani in New York, which led sectors of Trumpism to warn of financial retaliation. “They told New York: we are not going to send you more money. Trump said ‘we even lost a part of our territory,'” said Lijalad, suggesting a parallel with what happened in Argentina: “Yesterday we found out that Bessent took the money.”
The key is in an operation detected by analysts such as Amílcar Collante: Bessent exited Treasury bills just weeks after entering capital. In accordance with the reconstruction, he took pesos through government instruments, pesified them and then bought dollars again to withdraw them. Thus, according to Lijalad, “Bessent brought dollars, exchanged them for pesos, put them in a bill that the Government gave him with very favorable conditions, exchanged them back into dollars and left.”
Fernando Alonso’s note in The Uncovering He adds that the dollars for his exit would have come from the swap announced with the US, which does not yet formally appear in the BCRA reserves and that generates interest: that is, new debt without going through Congress. The result, they warn: the United States intervened, brought funds, conditioned Argentina politically, and by withdrawing left a greater burden for the Central Bank.
The Government did not report the operation nor respond to the versions. The lack of transparency fuels suspicions: if the sequence occurred as sources indicate, the supposed rescue ended up being a financial deal for Washington and an extra obligation for Argentina.
