Claudia Piñeiro: "The cultural world in Argentina is on alert."

" The less culture there is, the less one thinks , the less capacity for criticism and assessment there is" and that, in the opinion of the Argentine writer Claudia Piñeiro, is what interests the Government of Javier Milei , who with the policies adopted in this regard since coming to power has placed the sector in "a state of permanent alert."

"I suppose they think there's a resistance in culture and a possibility of criticism that doesn't interest them. They've dismantled all the organizations that could defend it with the excuse that there's no money, and there isn't, but it's also true that the budgets for those organizations were minimal," Piñeiro notes in an interview in Madrid to present his new novel , *La muerte ajena*.

The new novel is a thriller filled with a strong social criticism that leads the reader to a constant state of confusion, similar, he says, to the one we are subjected to in today's world.

"Our reality is constantly being moved and changed, we don't know if things are like that or if they're fake . That's basically in the structure of the novel," explains the writer, who took as the starting point for the book a real event that occurred in Argentina , the fall of a girl from the window of an important businessman's apartment after a drug and sex party.

She was an escort , like one of the main characters in the novel, through which Piñeiro analyzes the relationship between sex and power in the 21st century, a connection that has always existed. "The difference is that before it was hidden, and now it's constantly exposed," she says.

"And I think it has to do with this 'incel' thing (involuntary celibacy), men who seem to have felt scorned by women and who reinforce their insecurity by showing off the ones they now have," he notes.

Piñeiro uses the death of others to highlight the regression in human rights , such as those of the LGBTI community or feminism, in today's societies, specifically in his country.

"I think we're living in a time of regression and conservatism in Argentina. It seems like you can start saying outrageous things and nothing happens. That's extremely serious. Things have been said about women and LGBTI groups, even by the president of my country, that would have been unthinkable two years ago or a while ago," she denounces.

But he believes it's a process that 's occurring elsewhere, too , such as the United States or parts of Europe, although "Argentina appears to be the laboratory."

"These are the times we're living in, and those of us who disagree with all of this are quite confused about how to dismantle it; it's very difficult. They've found a way to communicate with the younger generations, very direct, and it reaches out a lot, and we continue to argue, but no one wants to listen ," he explains.

This decline also affects information and journalism , another topic Piñeiro addresses in the novel, but he clarifies, "It's not a criticism of journalists, but of how things are working right now, of the newspaper industry."

"I'm not a journalist, but I love journalism. I have a lot of journalist friends, and I also have an obligation to defend it because it's one of the industries most attacked by the president of my country," he says.

Piñeiro laments that the new generations have lost their curiosity about books , about knowing what they can find inside them, because "above all, what they have is the possibility of opening your mind to other worlds, being able to see different points of view, different realities."

"Anything that makes your mind smaller makes you more automatic in your decisions. Anything that makes your mind bigger will allow you to be more free in your decisions . That's what you'll find in a book," he concludes.