The elections passed, the Government celebrated the unexpected result and the Cabinet entered the renewal stage. But there is something that remains unchanged: the wild internal conflict between Karina Milei and Santiago Caputo, which brought so many headaches to the President, remains unresolved.
It is enough to observe the sequence of the last two weeks: before the elections, Milei’s star advisor had made it known that as of Monday the 27th, with the result in place, he would occupy a kind of super ministry. It could well be the Chief of Staff, which was then still commanded by his adversary Guillermo Francos, or it could be a plan B like the Ministry of the Interior, but with expanded powers. What happened instead? The President’s sister blocked his promotion and placed loyalists in both positions who respond to him without question, such as Manuel Adorni and Diego Santilli. And the advisor was left without bread and cake.
Adorni, it is known, has always been the sister’s right-hand man, first as a spokesperson, then as a winning candidate in CABA and now as an Antento Chief of Staff under the orders of the true commander of the Government, the general secretary. And Santilli has been close to Karina since the time he negotiated his place on the Buenos Aires ballot with her, owner of the pen. That is why he especially thanked the sister in his first message as Minister of the Interior.
Why was Caputo talking about his imminent empowerment in an important position? Because he considers that it was he who allowed the ruling party to arrive confidently on election day thanks to the unprecedented economic bailout of the United States. It is that it was two close friends of Caputo, the lobbyist Leonardo Scatturice and his American partner, Barry Bennett, a friend of Trump, who made possible the last two meetings between the libertarian leader and the Republican, and also the subsequent rescue. The advisor feels like they owe him, but he doesn’t get paid.
There is an additional piece of information. Why did Milei decide to get rid of his previous Chief of Staff, Francos, who was the only pigeon within the Government and the only one capable of generating some agreements? His resignation contains a worrying message: it means that the President believes that he no longer needs to negotiate anything with anyone and that he read the election result as a blank check.
