extraction dominated by far-right billionaires

There are now more billionaires than ever before. And they’ve just got another big win, with the highly valuable ‘Lithium Triangle’ now passing fully into far-right hands.

Lithium isn’t only a key resource for people like world’s-richest-man Elon Musk, who needs it for electric vehicles. It’s also in increasingly high demand due to the storage needs of artificial intelligence and data centre moguls. So there’s growing interest in ensuring a steady supply in a way that benefits billionaires as much as possible.

The Lithium Triangle is now fully open for billionaire exploitation

As the Canary reported previously, Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile hold over 75% of the global lithium supply. And until recently, they were all resisting billionaire domination in some way, while collaborating with China on resource extraction and processing. But billionaires have been working hard to turn the tide.

In 2023, their man in Argentina – Javier Milei – became president. His hyper-corporate agenda has been hyper-problematic, with Donald Trump having to bail him out in 2025 to keep him in business. But this connection has helped the US and its billionaires to move Argentina significantly into their sphere of influence.

The first year of Trump’s second administration also saw elections in both Bolivia and Chile give pro-billionaire results. The previous governments in both countries had been insisting on continuing state control of the lithium industry, and had been facing pressure from Trump.

Bolivia, which had suffered (and overturned) a far-right pro-US coup just years earlier, opted for an elitist president who promised “capitalism for all“. Elon Musk had previously said, in reference to Bolivia, “we will coup whoever we want“. But this time, a violent takeover wasn’t necessary.

Then, Chile elected its “first far-right president since Pinochet“. He assumed office on 11 March, finalising the official shift of South America’s Lithium Triangle into far-right control.

Will Chile and Bolivia now follow Argentina’s extreme example?

The extraction of lithium has already lent itself to human rights abuses and environmental destruction. But now, as the Financial Times reports, Javier Milei and his two new counterparts (José Antonio Kast in Chile and Rodrigo Paz in Bolivia) look set to ramp this up further. Because they:

have vowed to entice foreign investment, and are turning to US President Donald Trump for bilateral deals.

And they are:

likely to fan the flames of local conflict over lithium

Milei has already shown what to expect from the latest generation of far-right leaders in South America. For example, the neoliberal extremist has:

Highly unscrupulous billionaires already hoard more wealth than 99% of the world’s countries. But the wealth they’re siphoning away from ordinary people is only growing. And with the far-right takeover of South America’s Lithium Triangle now complete, the billionaires have just secured another massive win.

Featured image via the Canary