Buenos Aires Times

 Domingo 26-11-2023.

1. The making of a president – Javier Milei’s life before politics. Argentina’s president-elect is more than an infuriated lion. A look at his youth, family, loves and controversies. From his childhood and education, to his times as Chacarita goalkeeper, to his academic training. The women with whom he fell in love. In an unexpected twist of the Argentine political panorama, libertarian deputy Javier Gerardo Milei won out comfortably in the run-off over his Unión por la Patria rival Sergio Massa. He will now be Argentina’s president for the next four years. The La Libertad Avanza leader pulled off a double-digit margin victory over his economy minister opponent in a result representing the start of a new era in national politics. Yet the start of his own political career was anything but conventional in comparison with other leaders. He arrives to power with little to no party structure. Milei only became known in the media as an economic commentator. The 53-year-old’s eccentricities and his vehement denunciations of “the caste” wasted no time in making him famous. Many soon started to adhere to that rejection concentrating the political disenchantment of millions of Argentines in a context of economic crisis and constant devaluation of the national currency. The “caste,” as affirmed by Milei, are those who implement policies “harming people… to protect” their own privileges while arguing that they can do no other. “The caste are the corrupt politicians, the businessmen living off state contracts and bribed journalists,” he has commented on more than one occasion. Argentina’s president-elect has an economics degree from the University of Belgrano. He also has postgraduate work in economic theory at the Instituto de Desarrollo Económico y Social and a postgraduate degree in economics at the Universidad Torcuato DiTella. He later headed Máxima AFJP private pension fund in a system designed by then-economy minister Domingo Cavallo. Another job striking attention was advising Antonio Bussi, the ex-general convicted for crimes against humanity who served as democratically elected governor of Tucumán Province between 1995 and 1999. Facing questions over his decision to accept the role, the La Libertad Avanza leader later explained via Twitter his motives for taking this six-month job: “There were some issues affecting the province of Tucumán which needed an economist to analyse the laws seeking approval. When it was over, I left.” As an economist, Milei worked many years for one of Argentina’s richest men, billionaire Eduardo Eurnekian, as a financial analyst for his group Corporación América. He entered the firm in 2008 and left in 2021 when he was elected deputy in the midterm elections. Although maintaining a cordial relationship, Eurnekian has recently distanced himself from the libertarian leader following to his fierce criticism of Pope Francis. Family ties Javier Milei was born in Buenos Aires City on October 22, 1970. The first round of this year’s presidential election coincided with his birthday, which the deputy did not celebrate too heartily because he was trailing Massa by over six percentage points. Last Sunday, however, that all changed. During a television interview, Milei once admitted to a troubled childhood and repeated problems with his parents, Norberto Horacio Milei and Alicia Lujan Lucich. He was brought up from a very young age by his sister Karina, his campaign manager whom he fondly defines as the person who knows him best and “the great architect” of his political events. Nevertheless, not all was gloomy – in his adolescence, Milei played in the lower ranks for the Chacarita Juniors football club, becoming known as ‘El Loco’ by his former teammates. His father, who had an economic agreement with the club, steered him into becoming substitute goalkeeper, thus doing justice to his sporting abilities (he was better than the first pick, they say at the club) and permitting him to play in several matches. Although Milei has no children, he shares his home with five English mastiffs of around 100 kilos each, whom he considers to replace his family. In recent years, the economist’s parents have drawn a bit closer to their son, granting more dialogue with the local press about him. In the general elections, after voting, Norberto, 80, told Perfil: "I hope he does well for my sake and that of all Argentines. Let the people choose, they know what they’re doing but change is needed." Soon after learning the official results of the run-off, the transport businessman said: “Javier is very happy, we spoke over the telephone and he told us to come on over.” They greeted each other at the La Libertad Avanza bunker last Sunday night after Milei’s victory speech. Milei and religion Despite being Catholic, the libertarian has an intense relationship with Judaism, which he has manifested in several actions and public statements. Milei has further revealed that he approached the rabbi Shimon Axel Wahnish in early 2021, that he wishes to convert to the religion and highlights that his international partners during his government will be Israel and the United States. Indeed, Milei’s relationship with Catholicism is distant and conflict-ridden. He has criticised Pope Francis, describing him as a "Jesuit promoting Communism," "an embarrassing and sinister personage" and even "the representative of evil on Earth." These statements intruded into the presidential debates prior to the general elections and for the run-off soon became a meme for the social network when Massa required him “ask the Pope’s pardon.” Milei replied that he had already done so and that if the Pope came to Argentina during his presidency, "he would be received with the honours due to a head of state." The Argentine pontiff communicated with Milei in the wake of the election and the two shared a “pleasant and good dialogue,” said party sources, with the president-elect inviting him to his homeland. "You will be received with the honors of a head of state. It would be very good for Argentines if you traveled and visited us," the president-elect reportedly told him. Milei has always shown himself to be very close to Judaism, even linking his leadership to the story of Moses. "The logical thing would be for Kari to be Moses and me to be Aaron. Because Moses was a great leader and, if you will, connected to The One [God] but he was not a good orator and did not explain himself well so The One sent him Aaron to take care of the communication. That’s how we work. I call my sister 'the boss'," he has explained on other occasions. According to Milei’s biographer, the libertarian believes God spoke to him in 2017 and told him he had a “mission” to become president and solve Argentina’s economic decline. Relationship with Fátima Florez. When closing his campaign at the Movistar Arena, many tried to decipher the body language between Javier Milei and his show business girlfriend, Fátima Florez. Social network users highlight his love story with Florez, an imitator and performer who sprang to fame personifying one of the pet targets of Milei’s attacks in his speeches: ex-president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. The romance began when the actress’s press manager Alejandro Veroutis invited the La Libertad Avanza presidential candidate to see her at the theatre, but the couple already knew each other courtesy of veteran TV presenter Mirtha Legrand and a recording of her La noche de Mirtha last December 2. The economist and the imitator sat next to each other at the table, exchanging jokes. This year they were together again in a new edition of the lunches of the iconic hostess signifying her return to television. Puzzled by their demonstrations of affection Legrand blurted out with her characteristic humour: “You’re an odd couple you two, eh.” This is not the first time that show business has entered the candidate’s love life. Beforehand he had gone out with the singer Daniel Mori, a relationship the duo publicised on various television programmes.

2. Karina Milei: How the most important member of Argentina’s next government thinks. The youngest member of Milei family has the last word within La Libertad Avanza. The issues she monopolises and how she handles them, her role in the face of her brother’s solitude and her importance to Argentina’s president-elect. thank you, thank you.” It’s the first time that Karina Milei has climbed onto a stage to speak and hardly a routine moment – her brother has just been elected President of all Argentines. The public, both inside and outside the Hotel Libertador, awaits the first words of the economist as president-elect. But – with a wink from the protagonist – she is the first to start the ball rolling. “Jefe, jefe, ole ole ole, jefe, jefe,” chants the multitude. “Thank you, thank you. Good night. I leave you with the president-elect, Javier Milei,” she says as she lets her elder brother take to the podium. During all the rest of the day she will always be close by his side. Karina Milei, 51, won’t need any official post in the next government because any position would be beneath her. The principal campaign strategist for the president-elect’s campaign has spent her lifetime being the most important person for her brother. For most of those years she was the only one at his side, without counting the now ghostly presence of his late dog Conan. Complex dynamics. To understand the role of Karina in its true dimensions, you first have to understand the complex dynamics of La Libertad Avanza (LLA). The grouping has a profoundly chaotic structure without a pecking order or any kind of hierarchy, as is common in other parties. It zigzags and your best friend tomorrow can be a traitor and vice-versa. It also suffers from another problem – it grew too fast. To give an example, PRO competed and had lost an election before their 2007 victory made a Buenos Aires City mayor out of Mauricio Macri, who served two terms before making the jump to national level. This case is very different. The growth of LLA was brutal, campaigning from the first months of its life to take Milei to the Presidency in only two years, without any internal order nor any mechanism of debate or conflict resolution nor the least intention of designing any. The only thing clear to all involved was that Javier and Karina were in charge, an ultra-verticalist logic which adds another problem – both can change their mind on an issue several times in a week. In a party which apes the forms and emotional upheavals of the leader and his sister, chaos was inevitable. Karina was the one plugging the gaps. Although her brother is the visible face – her voice was almost unknown – and although all her life she has steered even clearer of politics than Javier, she is “El Jefe” (“the boss,” as he calls her) and she calls the shots in La Libertad Avanza. She has a total monopoly of some issues, topics which in any other party tend to be divided up among several people. But she does not want to delegate, nor does she know how to. The 51-year-old is also handling the money. She’s the treasurer, the one who controls the cash which goes in and out, the one who makes the decisions about fundraising and who takes charge of collecting. Those who deal with her say that she is much quicker in such matters than her brother. “Moses,” as the libertarian leader refers to her, is the strategist. For Javier the alternatives to follow, the names to support or expel, the agenda, the interviews, the rallies, the aesthetics and the places to visit… all come to him via his sister. Fear and blessing. “Talk that over with Kari,” is the phrase most often heard within the front, a logic which drives more than one person crazy and in the long run ends up blocking the resolution of any issue. Some are terrified of her. It suffices to see the face of Fátima Florez, Milei’s brand-new girlfriend, when in the last Sunday speech she sought to regain a certain protagonism on the stage but was cut short by a mere glance from Karina. All those within the structure – or who wish to belong to it – know that to do anything, they first need Karina’s blessing. She is the way of reaching Milei, she is the one who convinces him of what steps to take. She’s the only person the president-elect really trusts. The dance of figures around the sister is explained by this reality. “If they want to be here, they know what telephone to call,” Karina likes to repeat. Some in the party maintain that there is something manipulative about the relationship between Karina and Javier. That when she does not get what she wants, she kicks, argues, screams and ends up in terrible fights with her brother, until she stops talking and leaves. Several days without communication can then follow until the deputy ends up yielding to “the boss.” What scares Milei is that deepest solitude in those spells in which his sister stops talking to him – the explanation of the power Karina has over him. Such is the relationship between the next president and the most important person in La Libertad Avanza.

3. Victoria Villarruel, the first vice-president to play down dictatorship’s crimes. By presenting herself as a militant of "complete memory," the La Libertad Avanza vice-president-elect has constructed her political figure around the controversial “theory of two demons,” equating left-wing killings with state terrorism. The political ascent of president-elect Javier Milei was in part based on relativising the crimes of the military dictatorship with a newly updated version of the "two demons theory." And the meteoric rise of his running-mate, Victoria Villarruel, in public life has carried with it the demand for a review of the consensus laying the bases of Argentina’s democratic pact: Nunca Más (“Never Again”). The woman who will soon be Argentina’s second-in-command looms as the nation’s first vice-president to relativise state terrorism, placing once again the spotlight on the political violence of the 1970s and pushing a denialist discourse which over the years has served as her political platform. Villarruel, 48, found a political loophole within human rights, a non-partisan banner but one that is intrinsically linked to Kirchnerism and Radicalism in the collective imagination. By presenting herself as a militant of "complete memory," the La Libertad Avanza vice-president-elect constructed her political figure around the controversial “theory of two demons,” equating left-wing killings with state terrorism. She has chosen to take her stand as a disruptive figure and even "politically incorrect," just like her political boss. With spotless oratory Villarruel, a skilful lawyer with an Army family background, has shifted the nub of the discussion to raise her voice on behalf of "the other victims" – i.e. those who died in the attacks of guerrilla organisations. She has sought to mingle concepts, placing the victims of those attacks on the same footing as the victims of state terrorism during the 1976-1983 military dictatorship (including baby-snatching), atrocities which were later considered crimes against humanity and therefore beyond the statute of limitations. "There were armed terrorist actions on such a scale as to make denying that a war was incomprehensible," Villarruel maintained in an interview with Eduardo Feinmann in 2016. "I’d like the judiciary to be really independent and judge those people just as they judge those state agents who violated human rights, I’d like to see parity and not feel that some people are second-class citizens." Villarruel does not acknowledge that the guerrilla activity in the years preceding the March 24, 1976 coup did not involve the occupation of territory nor that the guerrillas were quickly dismantled by the military junta. In a 2011 speech to the Oslo Freedom Forum, Villarruel thanked her hosts for “guaranteeing freedom of speech and for allowing thousands of people who have disappeared from the Argentine social memory to have a voice.” “When people talk about Argentina they talk about only a part of the facts that took place,” she began. “The powers in Argentina have chosen which part of the history it will choose to tell and which part it will choose to hide,” she says, going to explain that the “de facto government” was involved in a “dirty war.” Admitting that the dictatorship “suppressed terrorist organisations,” she argues that “the history which is told also includes the legitimisation of terrorist acts because they opposed a dictatorship.” She goes on to accuse the Argentine state of “promoting impunity” for terrorists active during the era of state terrorism and “discrimination” against victims. Even if she has denied the accusation of being a denialist on several occasions, her proximity to various convicted leaders and security officers, including Jorge Rafael Videla and Miguel Etchecolatz, bring her closer to such a stance. During the final vice-presidential debate against her Unión por la Patria rival Agustín Rossi, Villarruel’s (until then) ambivalent posture confronting the consensus concerning the dictatorship again became evident when she avoided answering whether she "is in favour of freeing genocides," despite her opponent's insistence on posing the question. She also affirmed that the desaparecidos missing "were not 30,000," seeking to discredit one of the banners of the policy of Truth, Memory and Justice. "In the Parque de la Memoria on the Costanera [in the north of the city of Buenos Aires], there are 8,751 names: Where are the others?" asked Villarruel, citing the figure from the CONADEP truth commission count. She failed to acknowledge the numerous dictatorship-era repressors who have never detailed what they did with the desaparecidos, or those who never dared to denounce disappearances for other motives such as fear or shame. Further proof of the denialist strain is the banalisation of the role of the former ESMA Navy Mechanics School clandestine detention and extermination centre, which today is a museum of memory, emblem of state terrorism and was this year named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. "A terrain like ESMA... of 17 hectares could be enjoyed by the whole Argentine people," she stated on television prior to the run-off, before going on to suggest that it could be turned into a school. Villarruel went on record in the run-up to the PASO primaries to say ESMA functioned as "the museum of the loss of memory" while rubbishing the concept of "state terrorism" in an interview with La Nación (in 2010), an expression which she termed "not only unfortunate but also confusing." As a vice-presidential candidate, Villarruel plunged into another controversy when she defended Iván Volante, a retired military officer who had criticised Rossi’s handling of the Defence Ministry. "My support for the Captain and all our men of the security forces who suffer the demonisation and mistreatment of Kirchnerism," posted Villarruel. Beforehand, emboldened by the context, Volante had published the image of a green Ford Falcon, the infamous car used by police and security officers during the dictatorship era to abduct people. With military music in the background, a video was also published with a threatening message, for which Army court-martial proceedings were started against him as a former military officer. Prior to her popularity, the heiress of the Army family never openly denied the crimes of the military junta and does not like being accused of doing so, as she has been on various occasions, repeating that it is a "highly unjust criticism." "They tag me as a denialist, a defender of genocides. I am not and never have been a lawyer for anybody in uniform accused of crimes against humanity," she told José del Río. She even recently charged that those who accuse her of being a denialist "are the relatives of terrorists" – a reference to government officials such as Horacio Pietragalla and Victoria Montenegro. When asked about the work of the famous Madres de Plaza de Mayo and Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo human rights groups, Villarruel has often resorted to a tried and tested technique – changing the subject. She often criticises the organisations alleging that "at no time did they repudiate terrorism." She has also cast suspicion on the restoration of identity, questioning the decades-long search for relatives whose identities were stolen by the dictatorship. "There are grandchildren who are registered as having been recovered and yet were with their families, according to the same page of the Grandmothers of Plaza de Mayo. I think they should explain that to society." The libertarian vice-president-elect has not defended the actions of the dictatorship during that dark era, but she has trod a winding road during her long militancy. When pushed with direct questions, Villarruel stays ambiguous, but looks to question the consensus that has persisted over the past four decades. Her actions permit the expansion of a denialist wave which could undermine the bases of Argentine democracy in the 40th anniversary of its return.