Spoiler alert: in the survey on the 100 most influential people in Argentina that the consulting firm Giacobbe carries out every year for NOTICIAS, and which will appear in this week’s printed edition, there is a name that appears extremely relegated in the consideration of those consulted. He is the star advisor of the President, Santiago Caputo, self-perceived as a key member of the libertarian administration, almost on par with the Milei brothers, Javier and Karina.
Let’s see the positions occupied, in that ranking, by the main figures of the Government and the opposition. First, obviously, there is Milei. In fifth place is Cristina Kirchner. In 11th place, the Minister of Economy and uncle of “Santi”, Luis Caputo. One place below, sister Karina. They are then followed by Axel Kicillof (18th place), Mauricio Macri (23rd), Manuel Adorni (28th) and Martín Menem (44th). But what about the star advisor? There it is, in 47th place, in the middle of the table, as a small team. A terrible blow to your self-esteem.
That the power of “Santi” Caputo was eroding internally without respite with Sister Karina is something that is obvious. That process began with the unexpected victory in the October elections, which the general secretary claimed for herself due to the territorial arming of the Menem cousins, her lieutenants, although the truth is that it was Caputo who – with his contacts – obtained the bailout of the North American Treasury that perhaps influenced the result more than any clientelistic strategy that the Riojans could have mounted. They never acknowledged it or thanked him.
With the result in place, the advisor intended to be rewarded with a relevant position in the Government’s organizational chart, pushed by his friends from the North. He circulated the version of a “takeover” on his part of the administration, perhaps from the position of Chief of Staff, a place from which Guillermo Francos had to leave due to his lobbying in favor of relations with China, inadmissible for Washington. And Francos actually left, but Caputo did not take his place, but rather Karina hurried to fill that box with a loyalist of hers like former spokesperson Adorni.
The same thing happened later with the Ministry of the Interior, the consolation prize with which the advisor seemed to settle after being left without his main objective. He even spoke quietly of a “super ministry” in charge of everything that really mattered in the Government. But, again, it couldn’t be: Karina put Diego Santilli there, another of those who pay homage to her.
Caputo stayed, then, in his old place as monotributista advisor. And to make matters worse, their internal rivals, the Menem, have been quietly announcing that they will go after the boxes over which they still have influence, from the former AFIP to YPF and the Ministry of Health. He has already lost control of the SIDE: although the new Secretary of Intelligence is someone he trusts, it was Karina whom he had to go see at the Casa Rosada before assuming the position.
What remains, then, of the enviable power that Caputo knew how to build in the early days of the mileist experience, when it seemed that he would eat all his rivals raw? Little and nothing, because they were fleecing him.
It’s still there, but in a vegetative state.
