Javier Milei cries. It is a situation in which the libertarian usually finds himself. Since he became President, he was seen tearing up tears on several occasions. On the day of his inauguration, on the trip to the Western Wall in Israel, on the night of the anniversary of Hanukkah, or when a grenadier gave him a gift on his birthday, to name just a few episodes. It is impossible for the economist to contain strong emotions.
On June 24, 2023, Milei repeated that custom. On that occasion I was not happy or touched at the moment, quite the opposite. He had something similar to fear. On the one hand, the cries of Victoria Villarruel They were deafening. Although the profile he shows in public is one of a tough guy who rants and stands up to anyone, in private he is far from that pose. Villarruel, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. And that day she was a beast. That was the other reason why the economist was so afraid: there were hours before the final closing of the lists for the elections and his running mate announced that she was getting off the ship.
“Here, you want the vice presidency, keep it, I’m not interested anymore,” the then deputy spat, almost choking on the anger. The lawyer had found infiltrators of residual Peronism on the ballot she would co-star in, rusty leaders whom her own space would call “the caste”and not only that: she was convinced that she had enough evidence to see a spurious maneuver behind this move. Villarruel pointed out the name and surname of Carlos Kikuchithe then black monk at the front, but there was an elephant floating in the room. The operator was under Karina’s orders, and accusing one was the same as accusing the other, even without naming her.
Faced with the shouting, the imminent threat and the complaints, Milei remained in his chair, like a child challenged by a teacher in the middle of class. Through tears, “the Lion” only managed to stammer “please, Victoria, please.”
that day something was broken forever between Milei and Villarruel. That’s at least what it’s trying to install now. Santiago Caputo. Since the President came out to declare, in a comfortable interview on television, that the vice president was outside of “government decision-making” and “closer to the caste,” the star advisor was in charge of spreading that version. “Perhaps extorting money by threatening to get off on closing day was not the best course of action,” @mileiemperador, an account assigned to Caputo, uploaded shortly after the interview. It was an idea that his bishops also repeated from the Casa Rosada, although all of them preferred to omit the part of the libertarian tearing and having a nervous breakdown.
The curious thing about the case is that neither the Villarruelismo nor other witnesses present on that day deny what happened. Although everyone – even those who do not report to Villarruel – tone it down: they say that it was a hectic exchange of those that usually happen in those intense moments, but that it did not go beyond that.
In any case, it is clear that historical truth no longer matters. That was one of the many evils that Milei and Villarruel inflicted on each other, attacks to the limit that were wearing down a bond between those who They presented themselves to the world as “friends”and which ended with the President breaking up with his vice in public and without prior notice. It is a war that has everything – shouting, betrayal, beatings, threats, crying – except peace.
Genesis
If they hypnotized Mario Russothe strategist of the La Libertad Avanza campaign in 2021 and the ideologist of Villarruel’s appearance as a running mate in that first election, would say that he is not at all surprised. that he put together a formula to reach the Chamber of Deputiesbut that it was impossible for that pairing to resist the pressure of a role in the Executive. Russo, who has several campaigns and some books under his belt, would say that from now on this duo could not work: one is deeply nationalist and the other a convinced anarcho-capitalist. And that both entered politics to make noise.
However, the problems started long before December 10 of last year. Villarruel had already threatened to withdraw from the candidacy in the 2021 campaigna preview of what would happen two years later. At that moment her anger was because she did not feel respected by the small table – for example, there was an event in San Telmo that was suspended when she was already there, without anyone notifying her – and because she had to pay for her entire campaign. his own pocket. Some in space mark the genesis of the problems between Karina and Villarruel at that time: there was a meeting between the two, requested by the future vice president, in which she requested some pesos to pay for flags and flyers. The sister rudely rejected the request and, according to some, marked her: she doesn’t like that anyone wants to put their fingers in the box she handles.
Time did not put things in their place. This medium told how it was behind the scenes of Milei’s decision to put Villarruel as a running mate in 2023 behind her sister’s back. When Karina found out – who, knowing that it could come to that, had encouraged any other candidate, such as Viviana Canosa or Diana Mondino– Troy burned. She accused the youngest member of the family of “betraying” her and, after a shouting match, she did not speak to him for several days. And he didn’t stop there: in the first act that took place after Milei and Villarruel closed that agreement, in Pinamar in January of that year, he sent Juliana Santillán and Carolina Píparo to remove the future vice president from the first line of the walk. . The two women, now deputies, did what they had been ordered. At all costs, which included two short shots by Santillán behind Villarruel’s back and also a stomp. The then-candidate left the tour in a rage, although she was not surprised: she knew that Karina wanted her out of everything.
The whole of last year passed in this climate. To close the lists, the explosion, which today Caputo denounces as a threat, was more than foreseeable, almost intended, one could say. Villarruel had not only been kicked out of any place of decision-making and even mistreated with blows, but she had also been ignored in the assembly: she was not able to appoint a single councilor in the entire country, and they only allowed her to appoint Guillermo Montenegrohis then right-hand man, as a national deputy. Already in the Government, this reality would extend to the entire State control panel. There is no area, no ministry, secretariat, undersecretariat or decentralized company, nor a person who responds to the vice. That was thanks to another of the betrayals that occurred: Milei had sworn to him, in a hand-to-hand meeting, that he would give him control of the Intelligence area and the Ministries of Defense and Security.something he had also said in public. But the forces of heaven act in mysterious ways and had other plans.
By the time of the electoral victory, the relationship between Villarruel and Milei’s right and left hand was dynamited. The future vice president had made moves in those days: she was absent from the campaign closing stages in Buenos Aires and Rosario, and instead of being in the last of these places with the rest of the space, she organized, without warning, a walk in the City. With her as the protagonist, it debuted its own seal and logo (a pink “V”, for its name, on a blue background) on several flags.
It was the straw that broke the camel’s back. For The day they won the elections, Villarruel was not allowed to go up to the stage where Milei spoke.and on that day he did not name him even once. On December 10, when the libertarian assumed the presidency, the scene was repeated: the vice president went to the lectern where the economist was about to give his speech, with her back to Congress, and discovered that there was no seat designated for her. The official transmission even showed the lawyer’s back, as she left in a fury. Either way, everything was about to get even worse.
Outcome
The Government did not reach one year before Milei’s final blow to his vice president. In that stretch everything happened. Villarruel called “Jamoncito” in a note to the libertarianstood up to the Government on sensitive issues such as the Malvinas and in a controversy over a racist song by the National Team to a French player – which ended with another public encounter with Karina, who went to the French embassy to apologize with the intention explicit about leaving the other offside, He missed the event for the May Pact in Córdobathey left her out of the official photos of the Presidency at other events, she flirted in front of the cameras with an opponent like the senator Jose Mayansharshly criticized Ariel Lijo, and was accused by Karina’s informal spokesperson, Lilia Lemoineabout a ton of things, from being behind the visit of pro-government deputies to the repressors in Ezeiza or the anti-chainsaw increase in the senators’ allowances, to actively conspiring against the President.
Caputo also put the spoon in here, the day Karina went to the French embassy to snub Villarruel. There the libertarian networks were divided in their support for women, and in that a libertarian influencer stood out, @tanogiuliani, who supported the vice president and who received what seemed like a coordinated attack from a troll army. The tweeter accused Caputo, who responded from an account attributed to him: “If I had sent you someone you would be silent, continue down this path and we will break you. “I do not tolerate internal dissent.”
This was just what was displayed before everyone’s eyes. In private, there were other tricks. Some are almost a legend in the ruling party: a Cabinet meeting at the beginning of the year in which Karina did not let Villarruel enter for arriving, literally, two minutes late, or another in which Milei left just before entering when she found out that Villarruel was there. This is a point that the vice president insists on: they say that it is false that she stopped going to those events, as the President declared, but that they forced her to stop going. From La Rosada, on the other hand, they have a long history of reproaches.
They question that the vice president only appeared this year to reinforce her figure but never to defend the Government on more uncomfortable issues, and in particular they blame her for trying to build her own personal space. At this intersection is where they appear the ghosts of her relationship with Mauricio Macri. On the vice side’s side, they deny any conspiracy, and use their own ghosts as proof: they claim that Karina has tapped her and her team’s cell phones, and that even Villarruel’s personal security reports to the sister. “If we had met with Macri, they would find out within two minutes,” they say.
In fact, it is from the espionage side that they suspect that Milei’s final crossing came. The thing is that in that environment they swear that the vice president did not even speak ill of the President in private, but not of Karina. In fact, in that same note the libertarian spoke of “My sister, the pastry chef who knew nothing about politics and look where she put us.”. Is this how Villarruel refers to the youngest of the family in private? Did you find out about that nickname Milei and that’s what made you explode? The day after that interview, the economist posted a photo with his sister and a coded message, which seemed to confirm the assumptions: “History will honor so many OFFENSES,” in capital letters. Either way, this story is just beginning. There are still three years and many more mutual evils to go.
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