In Javier Milei’s guest list for the day of his swearing-in you could already see his link with the Argentine establishment. The best location in the Chamber of Deputies is the reserved gallery area where the balconies are with a privileged view of the place. Peeking out of those stately balconies were Eduardo Elsztain, Alejandro and Bettina Bulgheroni, Gerardo Werthein and Sebastián Bagó.
They were all seen on the television broadcast, but there were also other guests on the list that was drawn up by the Government. There were Sebastián Braun and the brothers Juan and Patricio Neuss and his cousin Georgie. Those who were not present but accompanied in other ways were Paolo Rocca, who was a contributor to Milei’s campaign for the runoff stage, Marcos Galperinwho campaigned on social networks for the victory of La Libertad Avanza, and also other lower-ranking but no less influential businessmen, such as Eduardo Bastitta, owner of Plaza Logística, a logistics park company that has among its clients: Free market.
with some Milei has a personal connection, as with Elsztain, Werthein or Bulgheroniothers helped fund his proselytism, like Paolo Rocca, others exalt him and celebrate him on the networks and the red circle, like Galperin and others are his mentors, like Eduardo Eurnekian. But there is something that unifies them: they were all part of Milei’s political career and he was nourished by them. And everyone hopes to do business – or is already doing business – with the new model. Today the majority benefit from the President’s policies of liberating the economy and escalating prices.
Origin
Milei emerged as a television product sponsored by the establishment. Her first appearances on television were in prime time programs on América TV, while she was still working for Corporación América de Eduardo Eurnekian, which at that time held shares in the channel. From this business group, Milei took the people she had dealt with with her to the Government. One is Nicolas Posse, who was in charge of the airports in the south of the country and today is his chief of staff. There is also Guillermo Ferraro, an external lawyer for the group that worked with Milei on the Trasandino Train project that Eurnekian intended to build to link Argentina with Chile by rail.
At Corporación América she also met her best friend, Gladys Humenuk, former candidate for senator and today undersecretary in the General Secretariat of the Presidency. And another of the most important government officials also comes from there, Interior Minister Guillermo Francos, who until recently was one of Eurnekian’s personal advisors and with whom he practiced swimming every weekend. Even a few days before Milei’s inauguration, Eurnekian had lunch with Francos at the Piegari Carnes de la Recova restaurant, where lobbyist Gustavo Cinosi, builder Gustavo Weiss and stockbroker Adelmo Gabbi were also present.
The America Corporation It is the one that manufactures the DNI, something that depends on Francos’ portfolio. For more information, the official also has the tourism area under his orbit and, with the change in the ministry law, he has the power to sit at the table that discusses aero-commercial policy. In other words, even though the relationship has been strained with Milei, Eurnekian’s true friend is the Minister of the Interior.
Eurnekian He had difficult moments with Milei during the campaign and went so far as to say that he had 3,700 employees and that one had “failed.” The main reason for the displeasure was the mistreatment of the then candidate for Pope Francis, of whom the businessman is devoted.
Milei’s spiritual side also has its ties to power. The first time the President became interested in Torah was when he was a private economics teacher for Saul Sutton, one of the sons of David Sutton, owner of the Alvear Hotel. Sutton junior is an aspiring rabbi and also studies economics, and one day he asked Milei a question that caught his attention because of the young man’s way of reasoning. “Where did you learn to reason like that?” Milei asked young Sutton. “It is because of the study of the Torah,” he replied, which aroused the economist’s curiosity and led him to approach Judaism.
David Sutton is a partner at Eduardo Elsztain at the Llao Llao Hotel in Bariloche. Elsztain became one of the most mentioned businessmen in recent weeks because he also owns the Hotel Libertador, where the President lived from before the general elections until his move to the Olivos villa these days, after returning from Antarctica. Elsztain is one of the largest contributors to the Chabad Lubavitch community in Argentina, of which Milei is a supporter. After the election victory, Milei traveled to the United States to thank the Lubavitch Rebbe, the most famous rabbi of Chabad Lubavitch, who has his grave in New York.
More business
He also went on that trip to the United States. Gerardo Werthein, former partner of Group W, who was already proposed to be ambassador in that country. Werthein was the owner of Telecom along with his cousins Adrián and Darío and a few years ago he left the group to dedicate himself to other businesses. He partnered with Brazilian businessman Edmond Safra, with whom he set up a company in New York called Replay Acquisitions. This alliance with Safra would have caused misgivings with his cousins and would be the reason that led to the breaking of the commercial link. Currently there are many versions about how they are with each other. Some say that they are still estranged and others claim that they are better, and add suspiciously: “Now that Gerardo is going to be an ambassador, everyone wants to get along with him.”
The first obstacle that Werthein will have to face in this new political stage is the lobbying in the Senate to approve his nomination as ambassador. What will the K bench do? Those connoisseurs of the thought of Cristina Kirchner They remembered these days that the former president would not have good memories of any Werthein, especially because she places them in the same quadrant as the Eskenazi family. The Eskenazis were helped by Néstor Kirchner to join YPF, but after the death of the former president they stopped talking to their loved ones and holding them accountable.
Werthein, in recent years, associated itself with the shareholder of América TV Gabriel Hochbaum and Bettina Guardia de Bulgheroni -Alejandro’s wife-, with whom he invested in a Uruguayan newspaper called El Observador, which also has versions in Argentina and Spain, as well as a radio. On January 1, a ribbon cutting was held to inaugurate the summer programming from Punta del Este.
Bettina Bulgheroni She is one of the businesswomen who was most active for Milei, whom she met in the hallways of América TV when they crossed paths at the end of “Intratables”, because she was recording her program “Puentes de Esperanza”. During the campaign, Bettina had a very important gesture with the then candidate. She was one of the biggest promoters of the Milei counter-summit in front of the IDEA Colloquium, which generated a stir in the red circle. The gesture was relevant because some businessmen did not dare to go that day, because Sergio Massa was still strong. Bulgheroni took the risk and it turned out well, supported by her friend Juan Nápoli. As time went by, Bettina established a better relationship with Karina Milei. At the inauguration, as mentioned, Alejandro and Bettina were among the President’s VIP guests. And on December 28, the new head of the Grenadiers was sworn in and the Bulgheroni couple also attended with Karina Milei. Bettina is president of the Granaderos foundation.
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