Since Javier Milei became president, Move Group has incorporated both government and opposition figures into its clientele. The consultancy firm where Santiago Caputo made his name even worked, until 2024, for Quilmes Mayor Mayra Mendoza, of La Cámpora fame. Patagonian governors Alberto Weretilneck (Río Negro Province) and Rolando Figueroa (Neuquén Province) are currently advised by Diego “Derek” Hampton, one of the Move Group’s managers. At the other end of the country, in Misiones Province, a team headed by Tomás Vidal – the other manager figuring on the firm’s letterhead – designed the digital strategy for the La Libertad Avanza’s candidates in the region’s recent elections.
When observing who’s who in the Move Group, the limits between the categories of official, advisor and private consultant become diffuse. The consultancy firm, whose company name is Green Consult SRL, was launched by Rodrigo Lugones and Guillermo Garat, two disciples of Ecuadorean political advisor Jaime Durán Barba, in 2013. That same year, Caputo joined up in a junior capacity.
A decade later, this trio – Lugones, Garat and Caputo – have become key pieces in the Milei government. Caputo forms part of the President’s “iron triangle” but was never appointed to an official role, invoicing his services as a self-employed monotributista. Garat has since been designated vice-president of Institutional Relations, Communication and Marketing at state energy giant YPF, the area handling official advisors. Lugones, a frequent visitor to the Casa Rosada, advises from the shadows. His father Mario Lugones is the nation’s health minister.
None of this trio today is formally linked to Move Group but its two managers Hampton and Vidal keep in contact with their former colleagues. Both consultants appear in the entry registry for the Casa Rosada. Furthermore, Vidal authorises visits as if he were an official and tends, in some circles, to be mentioned as Caputo’s right-hand man.
Working for everybody
In March earlier this year, the La Nación newspaper published an article describing the place occupied today by this “fantastic five”: Caputo, Garat, Lugones, Vidal and Hampton. Shortly afterwards, the book El Monje, by Maia Jastreblansky and Manuel Jove, shed further light, reconstructing the birth of Move Group in 2013: “As from then, ideological identifications were set aside and the new philosophy of the group passed to working for whoever paid best. Or rather, for everybody who paid,” wrote the authors.
That philosophy explains why in 2023 the same consultancy firm worked for all the political competitors. Caputo advised Milei and La Libertad Avanza, Hampton headed the electoral strategy for Patricia Bullrich and Juntos por el Cambio and Garat was contracted by Eduardo ‘Wado’ de Pedro, then Interior minister in the Frente de Todos government, during the brief period in which he aspired to a presidential candidacy.
The triumph of La Libertad Avanza and the new responsibilities assumed in government by some members of Move Group did not signify an obstacle in the wide-ranging search for clients. In February, 2024, according to official registries, Quilmes City Hall directly contracted the consultancy firm for the dissemination of institutional campaigns both via Facebook and Instagram.
“It was a company with which we have worked on the social networks and it had already done similar work in Quilmes since 2016, when Martiniano Molina” was PRO mayor, explained sources close to Mayor Mendoza, in dialogue with Perfil. “The person responsible for the account contracted what we wanted to be contracted: only administrative actions without personal references to officials,” they added, adding that the municipality no longer works with Move Group.
In southern Patagonia, Governors Weretilneck and Figueroa currently work with Hampton at the head of their provincial fronts, Juntos Somos Río Negro and Neuquinizate, in which the leaders of diverse political sectors converge and whose links with the Milei government have oscillated. According to the journalist Hugo Alconada Mon, the consultancy firm also “collaborated with the defeat of Kirchnerism in Santa Cruz” Province.
Apart from visiting the Casa Rosada, Hampton has family ties to power – his cousin Julián Ross Hampton, who responds to Caputo, is the current director of Administration and Governance Studies (Estudios de la Gestión Gubernamental) under the Cabinet chief.
“Basically, he is the man who contracts opinion polls for the government. Derek isn’t there but his cousin contracts the people in the area where they work,” explained Jove in comments to the ADNSUR news portal.
The influence of Move Group also reaches the northeast. In recent months Vidal placed a team at the disposal of the La Libertad Avanza campaign in Misiones to compete in the provincial elections in early June. “They are the party and have worked with us a whole lot, above all, strategy,” a local leader told Perfil.
In particular, Vidal tapped Vicente Fernández Moujan to take charge of the social network accounts for La Libertad Avanza Misiones, a youth who, according to his profile in LinkedIn, has been working at Move Group for just over six years.
“People always talk of infighting but we all work together,” they added from Misiones to explain why there were no conflicts between spin doctor Caputo’s line and the party operators responding to Karina Milei.
In the consultancy=, there is no militancy nor cultural battle, just contracts.
According to El Monje, Lugones was entrusted with creating the Move Group model of Move Group: “The consultancy partners were never on any paper because the commercial links between the consultants were sealed via private agreements. If somebody brought in a client, the profits were distributed accordingly: half for the company, a quarter for the pockets of the person who had clinched the deal [finder’s fee] and 25 percent distributed among those who effectively took care of the campaign,” described the book.
It remains to be asked how the income has been distributed since December 10, 2023, when some members of Move Group became officials (whether formally appointed or not) under Milei.
It is also worth asking how the group thinks out the communication strategies for each party, above all in an election year. Perfil tried to clear up these doubts with the consultants but obtained no reply.
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