Something that the two Milei brothers always hated was being underestimated. It is a sensation that they have known almost all their lives, practically until their oldest became President, which is why it affects them so much. One could even say that the need to confirm to the entire world that they are not, at all, a “neighborhood phenomenon” is the main driving force that moves them and lifts them up every day. In these almost two years, Karina Milei suffered a lot from that bitter pill, and not only from opponents or supposed allies like Mauricio Macri, but, especially, from her own troops.
That is why for the general secretary the victory in the legislative elections meant many things, but above all one: it was the moment she had been waiting for a long time to take the leap she was missing towards total control of the Government. And to demonstrate to all those officials who were lowering the price, a list in which Santiago Caputo has a favorite place, that the moment of truth had arrived. Karina Milei advanced on three ministries, on the libertarian blocks in the National Congress and in the Legislature of Buenos Aires, and now she is going for what she lacks. Or, rather, it goes for everything.
Maze. The mantra of the caputismo, since the tensions with the sister and her family escalated before the closing of lists at the start of the year, was one: “Karina may be the one who defines all the candidacies, but Santiago has control of the boxes.” That team was made up of the places where the most power and money is handled in a State: ARCA (the former AFIP), SIDE, YPF (the only official advertising channel), and Aerolíneas Argentinas, among others.
However, that insurmountable barrier has just been broken. Pedro Lacour and Alejandro Rebossio revealed in Diarioar a novelty that, if it were not tragic in involving one of the most sensitive organizations of the administration, would be funny: a furious fight in the house of Sergio Neifert, head of the SIDE who at the time of the discussion was in his underwear, and his virtual number 2, José Francisco Rodríguez. He still answers to Caputo, unlike who on paper is his boss. Neifert had been fighting with the star advisor and after the change of internal power after the elections he began to seek shelter in the Karinist wing, which aroused the anger of the “Wizard of the Kremlin.” In any case, Neifert’s days at the head of the spies are numbered, but the episode is transcendental: it proves that the sister’s final advance towards the Caputo boxes, a fact that this magazine had been anticipating since the war due to the closing of lists, has already begun. “Santiago is now going to lower his head and wait for the waves to change,” they say near him with resignation.
The fight for the other boxes is just a matter of time. Meanwhile, Karina has already scored other achievements: she placed Manuel Adorni, of her kidney, in the Chief of Staff; He quickly brought Diego Santilli, Minister of the Interior, under his orbit, and annexed the Ministry of Defense, led by the military man Carlos Presti, to his team. With the one from Security, he was left wanting: Patricia Bullrich, who for now enjoys the presidential sympathy, managed to convince her brother to leave one person from his team, Alejandra Monteoliva. The bond between the two strong women of the Government promises to generate sparks sooner rather than later: Bullrich refuses to recognize any leadership beyond his own – which gives wings to his intentions to go for an elective position in 2027 – while Karina does not get along with anyone who does not pay her absolute loyalty.
In addition to the advance on the Executive, the sister moved her chips in Congress. The endorsement of Bullrich as head of the block in the Senate meant the removal from that position of Ezequiel Atauche, who responded to Santiago Caputo. In Deputies, before the end of the year, Martín Menem will be voted as president of the Chamber until 2027, a fact that until the elections was questioned even by those themselves.
In Buenos Aires there also promises to be noise: Sebastián Pareja, Karina’s owner, wants to put Juan Osaba, one of his men, at the head of the libertarian bloc in the Deputies. That place is occupied, for now, by Agustín Romo, Caputo’s close friend. There is, however, a subplot going on there: not all of the couple are so convinced of wanting a place with so much political exposure. “It’s just that between all of us we don’t even have a complete secondary school,” they admit from those ranks.
Shark. One way to tell the story of La Libertad Avanza and its meteoric rise to power is through Karina. For 2021, the debut campaign to which she arrived with nothing more than her past as a tarot reader and baker, she was another member of the small table. Her power, at that moment, was nothing more than being her brother’s confidant, who kept his agenda and accompanied him wherever he went.
The following year, with our heads focused on the presidential election, that began to change. The youngest of the family entered into a political partnership with the operator Carlos Kikuchi, and went to seek total control of the armed forces that at that time were spreading throughout the country. He displaced those who did not respond to him, and ended up having control of a large part of the lists. By the time the Milei landed in the Casa Rosada, Karina took another step in her political growth: after getting rid of Kikuchi, she established a political partnership – no longer a relationship of boss and employee – with someone who did know, unlike her, the behind-the-scenes of the functioning of the State. For much of the first year of the mandate that “iron triangle” worked, but it was born destined to fail: the excessive ambitions of Caputo and Karina could only collide.
What does the sister’s career demonstrate, abbreviated in one paragraph? That when it does not advance it is not because it is still, but because it is gaining momentum, recognizing the terrain. Karina, who has the emotional, personal, therapeutic and mystical monopoly of the President, is always planning her next blow. And so far he only accumulates victories and defeated enemies.
