Ruling party senator-elect accused of US drug arrest blocked from taking seat

A ruling party senator-elect whose swearing-in to the upper chamber has been delayed amid drug-trafficking claims has accused congressional authorities of “violating the Constitution" and proclaimed her innocence.

La Libertad Avanza’s Lorena Villaverde, who won election to the Senate in the October midterm elections representing Río Negro Province, reiterated this week that she has “no ongoing criminal cases either in Argentina or in the United States” against her.

“They have sullied my name and my honour, and no-one is prepared for their name to be destroyed. I have been acquitted in every case. I am not a drug-trafficker, I am not a fraudster,” Villaverde said in an interview with Radio Rivadavia on Wednesday.

Villaverde, who since 2023 has been a national deputy for President Javier Milei’s ruling party representing Río Negro, was referring to her 2002 arrest in Sarasota, United States, when she was accused of involvement in cocaine-trafficking. 

Detained along with two other individuals for the “distribution of illicit drugs” and “conspiracy to distribute narcotics,” the case was closed by US federal prosecutors in 2017 and she is no longer under criminal prosecution in Florida. 

According to reporting by La Nación, she was convicted in 2002, won a retrial and was released from jail, later left the United States and the charges were withdrawn in 2017 after 14 years of inactivity.

Since the midterms, lawmakers from various caucuses – not least the Unión por la Patria (Peronist) opposition – have objected to her appointment and prevented her from being sworn in.

Her credentials remain under review by the Senate’s Constitutional Affairs Committee, despite some senators already taking the oath of office.

Until the issue is resolved, La Libertad Avanza (LLA) will be working with one seat less in the upper house, 19 instead of the 20 it is eligible for.

It is unclear if the committee will assess her appointment during special sessions of Congress or when normal sessions begin on March 1.

Villaverde, who has withdrawn the resignation letter she had submitted to vacate her seat as deputy in order to take up her Senate post, maintains that those who criticise her have “never found any illegal behaviour” in her life. 

She also pointed out that, in her province, the people of Río Negro “voted for me despite the accusations in the media.”

“In the province they validated me; they judged my moral, ethical and work-related qualities,” said Villaverde in her radio interview. “I have no case pending. In every case, I complied with the law and in every one, I was found innocent. I have absolutely nothing against me.”

She said she is “working to secure approval of her credentials” but admitted that if she fails to do so “the next in line will take office,” a reference to Enzo Fullone, the candidate who came second on the ruling party’s provincial list in October.

Peronism’s local branch in Río Negro Province have accused the senator-elect of “moral unfitness” in respect to the allegations and other alleged links to recently extradited Argentine businessman Federico ‘Fred’ Machado, who is facing drug-trafficking and fraud allegations in the US courts.

José Mayans, president of the Unión por la Patria caucus in the Senate, said last month that the upper house cannot allow Villaverde to take office “because her links to drug-trafficking” make her “unworthy of holding a seat.”

“We do not agree that someone with this background should occupy a seat in the Senate,” Mayans insisted.

Earlier this year, Peronist deputy Martín Soria presented a document before the Senate indicating that Villaverde had been cited in a cocaine-trafficking case in Florida.

According to Soria, the libertarian was arrested in Florida with 400 grams of cocaine. He also said her home was raided in 2017 in a money-laundering probe, and that there are complaints regarding fraudulent land sales in Las Grutas, Río Negro. 

Villaverde was born in San Antonio Oeste and completed her secondary education in Cipolletti, Río Negro Province. She studied public accountancy at the National University of Comahue but did not finish the degree. In the private sector, she has worked in tourism marketing, port activities and property development.

In 2023, inspired by Milei, she decided to enter politics and ran for mayor of Las Grutas. Although she did not win, her rise within the libertarian movement enabled her to boost her profile and win election as a national deputy for Río Negro in elections that same year.

In Congress, she aligned herself with the harder-line factions of La Libertad Avanza, participating in debates on the economy and security and voicing fierce criticism of the opposition.

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL