Argentine here — the US helped the military coup that overthrew democracy in Argentina and waged a "Dirty War" that saw people drugged and thrown out of helicopters. People born in the 70s grew up while that was happening. It's still living memory.

The US (and other western countries) dictate the price of raw material exports, and drain countries like Argentina of the best talent. They dictate freight rates. To the extent western capital is willing to invest in the country, it is to build roads/rails that take raw materials from the countryside to the ports in Buenos Aires so that a small class of bourgeois vendidos can sell out the nation's national wealth like a fire sale.

Macri is beloved by western media because he's willing to let the IMF and Federal Reserve dictate social policy in Argentina. Slash pensions, crush labor power, etc. My family voted for him and now my grandma needs us to send more dollars over so she can afford to live. Lot of parallels IMO to people on public assistance voting for Trump in the US. There were other solutions possible besides austerity.