Despite China’s complaint, Argentina weighs no sanctions or apology over Nepal disaster accusation

China has lodged a formal diplomatic complaint, but Argentina’s government is not currently considering sanctions against Juan Pablo Carreira or a public apology for his remarks about the disaster in Nepal.

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a subject that does not even exist

The complaint followed a public statement from Beijing expressing displeasure with Carreira, the government’s director of digital communications. Carreira had linked the Chinese government under Xi Jinping to the humanitarian disaster in Nepal, where more than 1,200 people have died and 5,000 remain missing.

People close to Carreira, who is known on social media as Juan Doe, dismissed the controversy as “a subject that does not even exist.” They argued that the comment “was not made on an official account,” but from “an account with a pseudonym.” Other government officials preferred to play down the diplomatic complaint, although they acknowledged that Carreira’s remarks were “avoidable” and had created “completely unnecessary noise.” One senior official said: “I would not have done it.”

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was not made on an official account

Carreira formally falls under presidential spokesman Adrián Ravier, while politically he is aligned with Santiago Caputo, a direct adviser to President Javier Milei. Attention has therefore focused on Ravier and Carreira’s future. Several government sources stressed that Carreira’s department reports directly to the spokesman, who has not won broad support within the libertarian administration.

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completely unnecessary noise

Ravier said at a Tuesday news conference that he was unaware of the situation. “We respond in relation to our official accounts, those of the Spokesperson’s Office and the Office of the President, and nothing else. No official has made any statement on the matter. The situation in Nepal is a tragedy. The government has not spoken negatively about it at all,” he said. Ravier and Argentina’s Foreign Ministry had not issued an official response by the time of publication.

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We respond in relation to our official accounts, those of the Spokesperson’s Office and the Office of the President, and nothing else. No official has made any statement on the matter. The situation in Nepal is a tragedy. The government has not spoken negatively about it at all.