“Here comes the first detainee to enter the Coronda federal prison, here in Santa Fe.” The one who narrates the scene, holding a gray metal door that seems heavy, is not a journalist or a social media influencer, but the minister of National Security. While Patricia Bullrich reads that sentence from the script, a young man in a green jacket with his hands handcuffed behind his back passes in front of the camera, and behind him a prison officer appears guarding his entry into the cell. a new work for security of the Argentines,” concludes Bullrich, wearing a gray cap from the federal penitentiary service, as he closes the door. Fade to black, and then the credits from the Security portfolio appear. The video goes viral, but the clip needs to be clarified. a small detail: it’s all fiction.
The person who denounced Bullrich was the mayor of Coronda himself, Ricardo Ramírez, someone who is not particularly critical of Milei’s management. “It was all a staging. The prisoners arrived from José C. Paz at half past five in the morning. They stayed for half an hour, filmed themselves and were taken away again. The prison, on top of that, still lacks a lot, it doesn’t even have water. “I share many things with this Government but this was shameful, we are not used to this type of things,” he declared. The images of the false opening of the prison – which was also built thinking about prisoners who are about to serve short sentences, not for “narcos”, as Bullrich claimed in the video – multiplied on the networks. And before the end of the year, the minister thus added a new blooper to her history of marketing excesses and gestures for the tribune.
For the camera. The year had started busy for Bullrich. On January 3, the minister had announced in the media and on her X network account that her portfolio had managed to deactivate “a terrorist cell”, made up of three people “of Syrian origin” who, according to the official, had entered “ from Yemen” with “a package.” But after two weeks behind bars, Justice decided to release the detainees due to lack of evidence. The three were far from being terrorists: one was a hairdresser, another a ping-pong teacher and the third a freelance journalist. They were not, to the evidence, a danger to the Nation. The supposedly suspicious package never appeared.
At the end of that month, Bullrich screwed up again. It happened after a 9-year-old girl, Umma, daughter of one of the official’s custodians, died in a robbery in Lomas de Zamora. Five days after that crime, his ministry leaked the data of Patricio Valentín García, along with a photo of him detained by the police. They accused him of being the young woman’s murderer, and for a week the networks were full of comments calling for the 22-year-old to be lynched. However, seven days later they had to release him: García had spent the night of the crime sleeping at a friend’s house and had absolutely nothing to do with it. “They wanted to paper me. “They grabbed the first person who crossed their path,” said the young man after being released.
In the last months of the year, the maneuver of arresting innocent people was repeated again in the Ministry of Security. On October 6, a 42-year-old man was arrested for allegedly having two kilos of cocaine in Mendoza. “A lot of talcum powder, not very efficient, whoever makes them pays,” Bullrich uploaded to his account, along with a photo of the captured person. The man spent 21 days in prison in Cacuheta prison. Then they released him: the drug was, in fact, talcum powder. In jail they had stolen all his belongings and on top of that the police left him on Route 7 at night, with nothing on him. “Sometimes it happens that talc is confused with cocaine in operations,” Bullrich later stated.
On November 3, Marco Centurión was arrested in Rosario. The man, a diabetic, was detained for nine hours before being told the reason: he was accused of distributing child pornography. “Zero tolerance for these criminals, we remain firm in the fight,” Bullirich tweeted, along with a photo of the prisoner. But then the Police realized that they had mistaken Marco Centurión. The man swears that they released him without even apologizing, and that on top of that, when he later opened his cell phone, he found out that half the country was denouncing him as a pedophile.
On December 18, the mistake was repeated again. That day in La Matanza, Eliana Gómez, a nurse, had been murdered in an assault. That night Bullrich uploaded a photo of Mariano Macena handcuffed, guarded by two police officers, and a text in which they claimed that they had “arrested this bastard” and that he was going “to jail and without forgiveness.” A day later, Justice had to release him, since he was innocent.
Photos. The minister had all kinds of episodes this year. In a report he assured that in Chile and Bolivia they had detected the presence of “Iranian terrorism”, but he did not attach any evidence. Both countries complained and she had to apologize. In May he wanted to take a bus to support the drivers who had decided not to join a general strike dictated by the CGT, but it became complicated: when he took out his SUBE card he realized that he had no balance.
An incident occurred in September that may have escalated the most. In a demonstration of retirees in front of Congress, the Federal Police gassed a ten-year-old girl. However, the leadership of that institution leaked to the press that the person who had carried out the reprehensible maneuver had been one of the people who were at the protest. That news went viral in the media, until a few hours later a video appeared that clearly showed that it was a security agent who had attacked the girl. Several of the journalists who had broken the news, such as Jonatan Viale or Eduardo Feinmann, later harshly criticized the Ministry of Security for this “operation.” The networks were also filled with criticism and Bullrich had to go out to calm things down.
However, despite all the bloopers and missteps, the minister is one of the most valued cabinet figures within the Government.
In fact, some in the Casa Rosada imagine her competing as senator for the City of Buenos Aires, in what would also be a move designed to upset the PRO: putting the former president of that party to compete in the district where she was born. . Mauricio Macri, they say close to the former president, has already conveyed to Milei his discomfort regarding this possible decision.
In any case, it is clear that Bullrich will be one of the most active in this election year. With an endorsement from Karina Milei, the minister has already joined her Buenos Aires army with that of the general secretary of the Presidency, and aims to sneak part of her troops into the legislative lists.
2025 for the minister, who will spend her vacation at Disney, promises to be intense.
Against Macri. Those who speak with Mauricio Macri assure that, when he analyzes the upcoming election year, he always saves a place to talk about someone special. It is Patricia Bullrich, whom he had enthroned as president of the PRO, but with whom he now has something resembling a personal grudge. In fact, close to the former president they claim that he conveyed to Milei his discomfort over an idea that is beginning to circulate in the red circle: that the Minister of Security be at the head of a list in the City of Buenos Aires in 2025. something that the yellow party took as a surprise, especially in these hours when it is not ruled out that Macri himself also competes for a seat in that district.
Bullrich, on top of that, bullfights Macri frequently. “He put the PRO in the opposition,” he stated. Previously, Milei urged the former president in an interview with the possibility of merging the PRO with the Government. The relationship is strained and about to reach the moment of truth.
