He arrived looking for bronze in his career, but he left through the small door. Mariano Cúneo Libarona accepted to be Minister of Justice under the Javier Milei administration, knowing that he would have a secondary role. Santiago Caputo set the stage for him by appointing the Secretary of Justice, Sebastián Amerio, who was the one who carried out the delicate tasks of the Government and who would be his replacement. The lawyer was a kind of painted cardboard. And yet it was noticeable how poorly painted it is.
The thing is that his administration ends with many unspecified announcements, some ridiculous, a series of bloopers and even suspicions of overpriced purchases, although in his farewell letter he was quick to celebrate: “I am taking a step aside, without causes of corruption,” as he said in an interview with Ámbito.
His time in the ministry includes several chapters. In Courts they remember one in particular: when he tried to get the judges to wear togas. It was included in the Omnibus Law that was to defend Deputies. “The judge will wear a black toga and use a hammer. What does he obey? You have to study history,” he said in the lower house. He assured that it was the way to “distinguish himself” from the other actors in the trial and He recommended reading “The Soul of the Toga,” a book that exposes 28 reasons why judges should dress that way. It didn’t happen.
A more serious stumble was when he assured, again in the Deputies, “We reject sexual diversity that is not consistent with biology”. His statements generated many rejections. The journalist Luis Novaresio was one of the many who crossed him: “Are you ignorant or bad temper?” he said.
There were somewhat more serious things: the minister was reported for abuse of authority, after a hidden camera became known where it offered to make the state apparatus available to him and bring contacts in the national media to former American intelligence agent Tim Ballard, to clean up his image amid complaints of sexual abuse.
And another one, which Perfil published in August: Cúneo Libarona awarded a contract for the acquisition of air and land tickets for both international and national trips for $648,779,200even though another agency offered a similar service for a lower price. The anomaly was detected by Sigen.
Although the resignation will become effective after the elections, the Minister of Justice made his decision known beforehand, just on the day of the closing of the campaigns. Cúneo Libarona returns to private activity whistling softly.
