Axel Kiciloff, Governor of the Province of Buenos Aires in Argentina, visited The New School on September 22, 2026 to participate in an off-the-record conversation with development specialists in New York and Washington about the challenges facing Argentina and the rest of Latin America. The Governor was received by Christoph Cox, Executive Dean of the New School for Social Research and Lang College, who also welcomed the participants in this meeting. The Governor was accompanied by a delegation which included Carlos Bianco, Minister of Government of the Province of Buenos Aires, Cecilia Nicolini, Advisor for International Affairs, and other members of the Provincial Government. The event was organized by the Observatory on Latin America (OLA), a research center founded by The New School’s Board of Trustees in 2006. The visit was exactly 11 years from when the Governor had first lectured at OLA on economic policy.
The meeting of about 40 people included an overview presentation by Governor Kicillof of the current policies of the right-wing Government of Argentina, led by President Javier Milei, and their impacts on the country’s economic performance, including growing unemployment, closure of many economic enterprises, declining public expenditures for social services and infrastructure, and growing inequality. Kicillof responded to various questions about the role of the heavy investments in the energy sector, the possibilities for a future green transition, the difficulties of meeting the basic needs of the population, Argentina’s global and regional trade, and how the government of the country’s largest province could function alongside a national government deliberately reducing the size of the public sector.
Participants included Professor William Milberg of The New School, Adriana Abdenur, Co-President of the Global Fund for a New Economy, Nancy Okail, President of Center for International Policy, Mark Weisbrot, Co-Director of the Center for Economic Policy Research in Washington, D.C., Peter Goodman of the New York Times, Jonathan Guyer from Institute of Global Affairs, other members of the audience included Guillaume Long, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ecuador, Magdalena Sepulveda, Director of the UN Institute for Research on Social Development from Geneva, Florencia Lopez Boo, Director of Global Ties for Children, NYU, Tehmina Akhtar of UNDP, Cecilia Nahon, Inter-American Development Bank, Alberto Minujin, the Director of the Equity for Children Program, and others, including New School faculty and students.
