Santiago Caputo’s consecutive errors, government accelerates campaign mode

The images of Santiago Caputo bullying a national deputy (in this case Facundo Manes) were splashed across every news portal nationwide. The star spin doctor, supposedly an infallible strategist, had committed yet another unforced error, following on from his decision to barge in to edit live the chat between President Javier Milei and Jonatan Viale. The recording was to have been edited for the general public but passing through so many hands, it ended up being published uncut on the web. The so-called “Kremlin magician” was out in the cold, no longer appearing to be the brilliant man that appears in some articles put out by crony journalists.

While maintaining Milei’s total confidence, Caputo had just come from sticking his fingers in the stove with the Hidrovía waterway tender before editing the interview on the ‘$Libra’ cryptocurrency scandal, where there are still no concrete answers as to his responsibility or that of the President’s sister, Karina Milei. Is it true that a consultancy expert at lobbying "public affairs" was sent to Mauricio Novelli, one figure at the centre of the scandal, on the recommendation of a sector of the Casa Rosada?

Hayden Davis keeps sending messages to open up negotiations with the government via his lawyer Yanina Nicoletti, who allows the idea to circulate that her client could turn whistleblower in the United States where Comodoro Py has no say, as Justice Minister Mariano Cuneo Libarona knows full well. Journalist Romina Manguel has anticipated in the Opinión Pública programme that prosecutor Eduardo Taiano would be requesting the location of the mobile telephones of Novelli and Davis, among others – above all, information regarding when they entered the Casa Rosada or Olivos presidential residence, with whom they spoke and who let them in?

Simultaneously, when asked who had come up with the strategy of confronting Axel Kicillof, a minister who detests Caputo pointed his finger at the spin doctor. This has not been denied. Demanding a trusteeship and the resignation of the Buenos Aires Province governor had two consequences. Firstly, it managed to unite Peronism against a common enemy, with Kicillof and Máximo Kirchner agreeing on something for the first time in years. Not to mention Sergio Massa and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Secondly, there will now be a criminal lawsuit against the President – one more.

Last weekend, Caputo stole protagonism from his boss in the worst possible way. Milei had already clashed with Manes in the Legislative Assembly, when the latter waved around the Constitution in reference to the Supreme Court justices which the government has appointed by decree. Milei took advantage of the nationwide broadcast to laugh at the deputy, accompanied by the mocking smiles and solid applause from the ministers who seem obliged to pay him reverential homage, as if he were a king. Not even Cabinet Chief Guillermo Francos forgot to laugh.

What is for sure is that the election campaign has already begun. And while Milei insists on an alliance with "everybody who wants to destroy Kirchnerism," there is only one condition – the libertarian calls the shots. That is why Mauricio Macri has yet to define himself although many are already playing at making local alliances. "It will be an election to survive," a governor of the now-extinct Juntos por el Cambio coalition said. Milei has already given notice that José Luis Espert will be heading the list of deputies in Buenos Aires Province – bad news for Diego Santilli aspiring to be the ideal glue between libertarians and PRO.

An opinion poll on the race in the Federal Capital, made by the Federico González consultancy firm and divulged by Clarín newspaper, has the 2023 Peronist mayoral candidate Leandro Santoro in first place and Milei’s 2023 mayoral candidate Ramiro Marra in second. And PRO? A distant third. To beef up his administration, Buenos Aires City Mayor Jorge Macri has ousted Waldo Wolff as Security Minister, changed his Legal and Technical secretary and given Hernán Lombardi the Economic Development portfolio, a position that has been vacant ever since Roberto García Moritán, the ex of model Pampita, was shown the door.