The meeting was at the Hotel Libertador. Javier Milei had already won the elections and in a matter of days he was going to assume the Presidency of the Nation. That is why a group of top-level businessmen, no more than a dozen, organized to ask him for a meeting to try to envision the Argentina that was coming. But The talk was not at all what they had imagined.
The thing is that the person with the most votes in the country, who they had sitting in front of them in the presidential suite of the hotel, did not offer answers. For almost no topic. In fact, every time he opened his mouth, the libertarian said something quite similar. “That’s good, that’s good, but we have to talk to the boss about it.”“the Boss is in charge of that”, “that is a matter for the Boss”. The businessmen, who manage millions of dollars in their companies and pay the salaries of hundreds of people, left the meeting bewildered.
The man who had organized the rally approached Milei when the meeting ended, to confide in him before leaving. “Javier, I’m telling you this because I love you and respect you. You are the president of Argentina. You cannot tell us that you do not make any decisions about anything, that the boss is someone else.. Otherwise no one is going to give you entity, do you understand? “They are going to want to meet with the boss, not with you,” he explained, almost with the patience of a primary school teacher. But the libertarian had one more surprise in store. The thing is, with complete seriousness, Milei told him that the problem was not him, but them. “You don’t understand: she is Moses.”
Moses is the Boss. AND The Boss is Karina Milei, the most important person in the Government that has just started. Almost as much as his brother.
The chosen one.
“Suppose you were the next president. What position would your sister have?” Eduardo Feinmann asked Milei. “Whoever she wants, because deep down, I mean, let’s say… I think she would have more of the role of First Lady.”. But there is a joke we make with her: that I did all this for her to be First Lady.” The interview, in the La Nación + studio, is from April 2022.
Since then some things have changed, such as, for example, that the interviewee is effectively the President of the Nation. The position that the economist had envisioned for her was also modified, although he had said in several interviews that he was not going to have a formal role. Karina is not First Lady, but rather General Secretary of the Presidency. But from that position, which on paper means that the person holding it is just a personal assistant to the president – how many people know who his predecessor was? -, the sister monopolizes everything. And everything is everything.
He is the person who does not separate from Milei. From entering Cabinet meetings with him – where he is the first to read the papers that his brother must then review – to accompanying him on the trip to Bahía Blanca, even at the President’s side when he goes to visit those injured by the storm. . He is the one who reviewed the names and resumes of the ministerial candidates, who gave the thumbs down to some and raised it to others. He is the one who commanded the raid that banned space historians such as Ramiro Marra and Carolina Píparo from entering the Government (an expulsion of cadres similar to the one he commanded in mid-2022, when he kicked out the founding group of LLA, which included, among others, by Carlos Maslatón and “El Presto”).
These are just a few examples. It is more difficult, however, to find Karina’s hand in ideas or projects that have been carried out. There are some: the draw for the deputy’s diet, the insistence on going for the Presidency in 2023 – when many in the space said, after the legislative elections, that we had to look for the City first -, and Milei’s rock aesthetic is her work.
However, Karina’s trail in the Government and in space is seen more in what does not happen. In what she prevents from happening. The thing is that she is, above all, a sentinel for her brother. The one who watches, distrusts and is suspicious. She has a mission, which was quickly revealed to the ministers: no one in the Government can dare compete with her brother’s exclusive role, which conveniently comes with hers attached. The rest are all supporting actors.
Everyone who was expelled from space for the sin of having a voice or career of their own knows this, and Even Guillermo Francos knows it. In the last stretch of the campaign, the Minister of the Interior had raised his profile a lot, and his figure, which stood out for his presence as a career politician compared to the rest of the space, was beginning to grow. Karina, the guardian, reminded him that his task was very different. Since then, Franco lowered his public appearance. “I have seen people who, when they arrive at the Casa Rosada, get stuck because of nervousness. But not Karina. She is not afraid of power. “He moves like a fish in water,” says a source with an office in those hallways. Another points out: “Karina has no enemies, because if you fight with her you are out.” Victoria Villarruel and Fátima Florez are, however, on that list of those she does not want.
There is another thing in which Karina tries to take care of her brother. It is something much more mundane, but it has the weight of the brutal force of biology: Milei’s double chin. The President has a kind of complex with that part of his body. That’s why the pose he uses for selfies. And that is also why he prohibited photographers from entering the Congress premises on the day of the inauguration: from that place, due to the angle, they can only take a photo from below. The Chief is aware of this matter – as is everyone around Milei – and that is why he has the mechanism well oiled when it is necessary to publish an image of the president: he sends it quickly to Eugenia Rolón, one of the influencers you trust who has a desk at La Rosada, who edits it and returns it to you. In the middle, the double chin disappears. They are the forces of photoshop.
Moses.
Since Santiago Caputo brought his uncle Luis closer to Milei, more than a year ago, the relationship had been growing. But every time the libertarian approached him with the idea of joining as a minister, he found the same answer: “Toto’s” wife and children, who had suffered a lot from the father’s exposure – including some escraches at events that never came to fruition. the light – they didn’t want to. Karina proposed to her brother that they organize a dinner between the four of them. And there Milei told the Caputos one of the most important words in her head, one that, he believes, came to her through the “channel of light” that her dead dog Conan con Dios opened for her. “Toto, you are part of the mission, you are a chosen one.” Although the phrase may sound bombastic, the truth is that since that dinner Caputo’s wife has never again expressed her opposition to the project. Quite the opposite: now she seems very enthusiastic about the Government.
Although it is hardly an anecdote, the scene reflects the heart of the Milei adventure. The brothers believe that God chose them, and everything they do stems from this idea: they are convinced that their lives are part of a prophetic plan designed by a superior force, a mystical conviction that in the exercise of government is evident in how the measures and projects go in depth. This is central to also understanding Karina’s power: she is the Boss not only because she is the only person who was by her brother’s side throughout a lonely and difficult life, but because she occupies a central role in that mystical connection. . It was she, who claims to be able to speak with living and dead animals, who communicated Milei with her deceased dog. And she is, Milei thinks, the one chosen by God. “I am Aarón, Moisés’ brother of popularizers, but Kari is Moisés,” he told Viviana Canosa in an interview, with tears in his eyes. A curious fact: Aarón is also the name of Karina’s dog -“my nephew”, the President calls him-, who these days became famous for his participation with his owner in a Guido Kaczka program in 2016. It is a unique combination of names, but it is not the only one. Milei also calls God “The Boss”, and swears that she does not leave her house without a paper in her pocket with those two words written down, to remind her at all times of the presence of the one who entrusted her with a task. divine mission.
Here lies Karina’s power. It is born among the ins and outs of Milei’s difficult biography, of what it costs him to resolve issues -unless they are economics, the area where he feels comfortable-, of the mystical dimension, but also of his sister’s desire for prominence. It must be taken into account that, until a couple of years ago, Karina sold cakes online, threw tarot cards and maintained communication with dead animals. She had a hard time making ends meet and Milei gave her part of her salary. She had graduated as a public relations officer from the UADE but she has no known notable work, beyond her digital bakery and the tire sales company that her father set up and that she managed.
It now concentrates the power of a national government. And he does it in a curious way, demanding fanaticism and opening the game little. Several in the ruling party point to one fact: Karina took a month to appoint her first official in the Government. She has no senators or representatives who respond to her, except Romina Diez of Santa Fe. Her only political terminal was the point guard Carlos Kikuchi, whom she expelled two months ago. “As he screwed me, he’s going to screw us all,” said “el Chino.” before a dozen space legislators the day they informed him of his dismissal and he stormed out of the Hotel Libertador. Now Kikuchi put together a separate block in the Buenos Aires Senate. “She wants to appear. She has a parallel agenda, which is not just Milei’s. She likes the limelight and also the money,” says one of the first expelled from the space.
His capabilities in office remain to be seen. Although Fernando de Andreis, who held that same role in Macri’s presidency, is helping her in whatever way he can, it would seem that the woman is taking her first steps. Qlow, they point to her for the delay in moving to Olivos. But there is no rush. The Boss manages the times.
