Villaruel is like a chameleon. Several times changed skin: He went from being a defender of the military convicted in the last military dictatorship (in the ’90s, when he rubbed shoulders with Cecilia Pando and handled a group called “Young people for the truth”from which he organized visits to Jorge Videla during his home arrest) to the flag bearer of “the other victims”, those who died for attacks by guerrilla organizations. Then he tried to get to politics as he gave rise. He flirted with the hard wing of the PRO, with the space of Ricardo López Murphy and finally ended with Milei. Now, since they are a government, it was transformed again. Is that even what happened in the last session, Villaruel had maintained, almost without exceptions, a consistent policy: to shut up before the onslaught of the Milei brothers and wait, with patience (or without it), to get in some future time. The vice president would never tell it in public, but Several times during this year and a half he felt something very similar to bullying. The anecdote is too long (of which several examples are counted in the latest edition of the magazine Notiica), but some episodes stand out.
When they did not let her be next to the president in Asunción’s speech, the day Karina Milei threw her out of one of the first cabinet meetings to be late -A of the historical failures of the Vice, although in this case it was only an excuse for the general secretary- or the repeated times when presidency not only denied access to his photographers for official events but then sent him any image. And they were not just the ways, but the background. Since at the end of the 2023 campaign they ran from the small table and removed the security and defense portfolio That Milei had promised her, she had seen all the future of the government since her office in the Senate. They did not consult it, they did not include it, they did not want it, they did not offer it a single “raviol” of the entire gigantic organization chart of the State to put someone of their. There were days in which this public humiliation – which included remote control darts from Milei – affected it personally.
What was, then, what changed? In principle, his circle of work and trust. Villarruel opened the door to two old acquaintances of his. One is Claudio Gallardo, former Army Intelligence Director who was appointed director of Senate Security at the end of last year, that accompanies her from the campaign but with which she had distanced himself in the start of the management. The man has martial formation and acts as such, a modism that Villarruel is accustomed and likes. ANDl Another is a historical space. Mario “Pato” Russo, Milei’s first strategist in the 2021 campaign -a author of Hits as “La Casta” -, which in 2022 had differences with the brothers and ended outside. He had been the one who convinced the libertarian to add Villarruel as his formula partner in that first electoral adventure, and since then cultivates a good bond. The empowerment of both wine, in addition, with the expulsion or degradation of the people who had worked until then for Villarruel. Juan Martín Donato -another leader of the Villarruelista Youth -and Emilio Vimonte Olmos, former administrative secretary of the Senate and intimate historical friend of the Vice, for only appointing some. But not only changed names. It is that Gallardo, with war, and Russo smell, with calculations that cross the political with the economic, share an idea: there is no way that the Milei experience ends well. They take care to clarify that they are not necessarily talking about an anticipated end – although it is not a scenario that they discard – but they believe that in one way or another this will be the first and only presidency of the libertarian. How much of this thesis became flesh in Villarruel? Does she prepare to be president?
Some of the raleados say that hunger gathered with the desire to eat: a dizzy and without a compass with two people who propose a clear north in which she can give free rein to her thirst for revenge. Those who left questions about this direction. “There is no plan here. They are not building anything, there is no team, there is no territory. In two months they will change their strategy again,” they say, and put as an example the spicy comments of Villarruel on their Instagram. “We were a whole year trying to build the image of the rational and institutional policy versus the irrational and dangerous. This throws everything down,” they complain. Time will say who was right, although she already showed her teeth. He goes to acts in which the president is absent – such as Independence Day in Tucumán, where he slid a subtle “there is no other place in Argentina to be here more than here” – and responds to the darts of the ruling party. It is emboldened.
*The full note is in the latest edition of News Magazine. In the next few days, in its web edition.
