Like Macri and Alberto Fernández, Milei also avoided the Senate to make her Ambassador to the United States official

Overshadowed by the impact generated by the appointment by decree of Ariel Lijo and Manuel García-Mansilla as judges of the Supreme Court, the "special" format with which the appointment of the new ambassador to the United States, businessman Alex Oxenford, was made official on Wednesday, went almost unnoticed.

"Mr. Alejandro Carlos Francisco Oxenford (DNI No. 22,347,588) is hereby appointed 'on commission' in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, as an official of Category "A" Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador, in accordance with the provisions of Article 5 of the Law of the Foreign Service of the Nation No. 20,957," reports decree 136/2025, signed by President Javier Milei and the Minister and Gerardo Werthein.

And then in article 2, its destination is detailed, and that the expenses required to comply with the decree will be borne by the Argentine State, the scope of which is unknown since Oxenford has not lived in Argentina for years.

In this way, Milei rushed through an atypical and emergency procedure that was nevertheless used in a similar way by former presidents Mauricio Macri and Alberto Fernández: sending their ambassadors to the United States on a “commission” without having gone through the Senate confirmation process required for ambassadors who are of political origin.

This is also a constitutional power. Macri was quick to appoint the current senator Martín Lousteau as a “commission” in 2016, who in the end never seemed comfortable with the embassy in the United States and also distanced himself from the former president. For his part, Fernández sent Jorge Argüello as his ambassador to Washington when he saw that the Senate was going to delay doing so.

And in this case, according to what Clarín learned from high diplomatic sources, the State Department has already granted Oxenford the approval to be able to carry out his mission in the United States and even deliver Milei's credentials to President Donald Trump.

Section 7 of Article 99 of the National Constitution empowers the Argentine head of State to appoint and remove ambassadors, plenipotentiary ministers and chargés d'affaires with the approval of the Senate, among others. And it is Article 19 that enables him to appoint those who “require the approval of the Senate” and that occur during his recess “in commission,” which will expire at the end of the next Legislature.

“This is a more common mechanism with ambassadors. It is usually used to send them quickly while the process in the Senate advances. I don’t know why they did it. Whether it is because they never plan to open the Senate again, because they were in a hurry, or because they didn’t have the votes. But it does show a tendency to ignore the Senate and skip the steps established in the Constitution,” said Guadalupe Tagliaferri, president of the Senate’s Agreements Committee, ironically after a question from Clarín.

It turns out that the senator had already sent what is called the parliamentary “message” with Oxenford’s confirmation document to be dealt with first in the Agreements Committee, which would be soon, in March. It is after it passes through the chamber that the president publishes his final confirmation decree.

A member of a wealthy family and a very liberal social circle, Oxenford has no experience in diplomacy but is respected and liked by those who have known him for his activities as an entrepreneur and in the arts. His only drawback could be that he does not live in the country but fits in with the Trade Ambassadors proposed by Minister Werthein.

Today at the Casa Rosada they were speculating that either the President and his sister Karina rushed to name him to a “commission” taking advantage of this week between the extraordinary and ordinary sessions because they are unhappy that the embassy in the United States is in the hands of a career diplomat - in this case Juan Corteletti - since Werthein - former ambassador there - was summoned as foreign minister to replace Diana Mondino, or because they were scared by what recently happened in the Senate.

Another version is that they were scared by the noise surrounding the appointment of the ambassador to the country, the United States, and the president, Trump, which Milei considers as a top priority.

It turns out that last week a group of former combatants and leaders of previous governments were upset by the solitary promotion in the Senate of the PRO diplomat, Mariana Plaza, to ambassador and her husband, Carlos Gonzalo Ortíz de Zárate, to first minister, and they made a loud noise in different media. And the discussions in the chamber were heated.

The couple is in charge of the embassy in London and they were accused of being “pro-British” and incompetent. It made so much noise that both career officials asked for help from Apsen, the diplomatic guild, which issued a statement in their favour. But the case reached the Presidency beyond the veracity -unverifiable- of these accusations since foreign policy is, as they recalled in their anger with the diplomats Milei and Werthein, the faculty of the head of State.

Meanwhile, Cuban-American businessman Peter Lamelas, who was appointed by Trump as his representative in Buenos Aires even before he assumed the presidency of the United States, will have to wait through the Senate confirmation process – and face hearings – to come to his destination. The headquarters is run by the experienced career diplomat, Abigail Dressel, currently chargé d'affaires, but already promoted to a new position, so she will leave when her nomination passes through the US Senate.