On Thursday, October 12, in the streets of Salta, the capital of the identically named province in north-western Argentina, the excitement was palpable as girls and boys screamed like they had just seen a rock star. The far-right populist candidate, favorite in the polls for the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, October 22, owed Salta this visit. Having come out on top in the August 13 primaries – a compulsory ballot prefiguring the presidential election – in 16 of the country's 24 provinces, it was here, 1,500 kilometers from Buenos Aires, that the outsider achieved his most resounding victory, with 50% of the vote.

However, it was in the remote Puna region, situated 165 kilometers from Salta, within the Andean highlands, where Milei achieved his most remarkable result, obtaining 63% of the vote. This marked a substantial 45-point lead over the second-place candidate, Sergio Massa, a Peronist and the current minister of the economy.

"We didn't see Milei's score coming," said Alberto Carral, the (Peronist) mayor of San Antonio de los Cobres, a town of 7,000 inhabitants perched at an altitude of 3,775 meters and capital of the Andes department. "We were overconfident. But now, we're working hard to make Massa win." In recent weeks, the mayor has been going door-to-door, distributing food baskets. "Nobody's fooled. People get the package, but that's not why they're going to change their vote," said a civil servant who preferred not to give his name.

"The only one who campaigned here for the primaries was Milei, on social media. The others did it the old-fashioned way. We haven't seen them. On Sunday, I'm going to vote for him," said Mario Soriano, a 22-year-old student. In the distance, on the bumpy road, a loaded truck passed. Every day, lorries take away gold, silver, borate and soon lithium from the mines surrounding San Antonio de los Cobres. "They tell us our region is rich, so why are we still so poor?" said Mario. The villagers complain that they don't see the economic benefits of the multinationals' exploitation of all these resources.

In these arid lands, as in the rest of the country, the economic crisis is raging. Poverty affects 40% of the population (53% of under-18s in Salta), inflation has reached 138% over one year and the peso has collapsed. "I've lived with inflation all my life. It's all I know," said Gonzalo Lamas, 20. "Peronist and anti-Peronist governments have come and gone, but nothing has changed. Milei and change is what we need." The candidate's flagship proposal, to abolish the peso and adopt the dollar, is seen as a miracle solution.

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