# Argentina confirms exit from WHO as Milei aligns with Kennedy visit
Argentina ratified its decision to withdraw from the World Health Organization on the event date, May 27, 2025, formalizing a move President Javier Milei had first announced in February.
The Guardian reported that the ratification came during a visit to Buenos Aires by US health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose own criticisms of public health institutions have made him a politically charged figure in global health debates. Argentina’s government said the WHO’s prescriptions did not work because, in its view, they were shaped by politics and bureaucracy rather than science.
That is the central policy statement in the packet: Buenos Aires is no longer merely signaling dissatisfaction, but advancing the withdrawal process with an explicit rationale. The government also referred back to its criticism of the WHO’s handling of the Covid pandemic, including what it called disastrous management and a “caveman quarantine.”
The timing of the announcement matters. Kennedy was in the country to meet Argentina’s health minister, Mario Lugones, to define what the government described as a joint work agenda aimed at strengthening transparency and trust in the health system. Lugones said the two sides shared a vision for the future of collaboration in global health.
The report also said Kennedy was expected to meet Milei during the visit and had recently used a speech at the WHO’s annual assembly to encourage other governments to leave the agency and build alternative institutions. In that speech, Kennedy accused the UN health body of being influenced by China, gender ideology and the pharmaceutical industry.
Argentina’s move should be understood in sequence. The withdrawal was announced in February, following Donald Trump’s earlier decision to pull the United States out of the WHO. The ratification on May 27 is the concrete step that turns a political announcement into a formal government position.
The Guardian also said the Argentine government announced a structural review of national health agencies to update and make transparent systems it said had long operated with overlaps, outdated regulations and limited oversight. That suggests the WHO decision sits inside a wider domestic restructuring of health administration rather than standing alone as a diplomatic gesture.
This article does not go beyond the supplied evidence. It reports the confirmed ratification, the government’s stated reasoning, Kennedy’s presence in Buenos Aires and the linked review of health agencies. The event date for the report is May 27, 2025.
