After winning Trump's $20 billion, President Milei must win votes as Argentine industry reels

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina -- BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — The factory floor used to roar.Walking around his textile mill in southern Buenos Aires, Luciano Galfione pointed out the up-to-the-minute machines that once whirred and clattered as 200 employees churned out fabric to be transformed into athleisure and other apparel for Argentina’s vast middle class.But on Monday afternoon, the factory was so quiet that Galfione's footsteps rang clear through the compound.

A handful of workers at the Galfione Group factory in Argentina’s capital spooled yarn and dyed cloth.Almost two years after libertarian President Javier Milei stormed to power on a promise to rescue Argentina’s crisis-stricken economy through harsh austerity and free-market reforms, falling orders and surging competition have forced Galfione to cut operations by 80%, lay off or suspend half his staff and use his own savings to keep his family's 78-year-old firm afloat.Other companies have simply closed their doors.

Over 17,600 businesses — among them 1,800 manufacturers and 380 textile companies — have folded in the last year and a half, according to Fundación Pro Tejer, a nonprofit representing textile manufacturers.“We’re seeing an industry in crisis, and it’s about to go bankrupt,” said Galfione, who also runs Fundación Pro Tejer.“Not only textiles.

Textiles are just the first and fastest to fall."As Argentina heads to Oct.26 midterm elections widely seen as a referendum on Milei’s policies, Galfione’s troubles reflect bigger shocks jolting the country.

The economy has sputtered.Cheap imports have gutted manufacturing.

Spending has stumbled, squeezed by higher unemployment and lower wages.The turmoil engulfing Argentine financial markets began when voters in the manufacturing belt of suburban Buenos Aires — a region that for decades represented the dream of national industry nurtured by tariff protection — punished Milei in a provincial election last month.The scale...