They dubbed themselves the “Grupo M (M Group)” and were born with one objective: to create an “establishment” custom-made for Javier Milei when the economist was still far from winning the election.
Iván Dubois, Sebastián Braun, José María Malbrán, Alec Oxenford, Patricio “Pato” Fuks and Eduardo Bastitta feel they are the ones who saw it first and boast about organising some of the most important —at least on a personal level— international trips of the La Libertad Avanza leader, such as the three visits to the Lubavitch Rebbe’s tomb or the meeting with Elon Musk.
The photo of their WhatsApp group is the eye that sees it all, the image on the one-dollar note, and the same one which the government has just chosen as the logo of the Internal Affairs Division, one of the agencies of the brand-new SIN National Intelligence Service.
They distance themselves and claim they have nothing to do with intelligence: “It’s an ironic image because the eye that sees it all can see anything but itself. It’s a kind of reminder to stay humble”, they tell their own.
Dubois (economic officer of the campaign and current member of the Parlasur) and Braun (businessman, heir to the family that owns La Anónima and a cousin of Marcos Peña) were the pioneers. They have been with Milei since he went into politics in 2021 and when they noticed that no one in the establishment was with them, since most of them leaned towards Macrism, they started working on building influential links. They called on Malbrán, then Oxenford and Fuks and, lastly, Bastitta.
With different careers in the business world, they started making telephone calls and setting up meetings with Milei. During the Llao Llao Forum in 2023, guests had a vote simulating the presidential election: the first place went to Patricia Bullrich, the second to Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and the third one to Sergio Massa. The libertarian economist was last with only two votes: those of Bastitta and Cristiano Rattazzi.
Each of them started approaching people, but the true break happened after the PASO primaries. Ever since, the phones of the members of the M Group have been ringing off the hook and they started realising that after that there was a potential new establishment. Further on, the six of them joined another WhatsApp group called “Nuestra voz (Our voice)”, which has around 180 members, most of them businessmen, but they keep the original one.
The first trip to the tomb of Menajem Mendel Schneerson, the Lubavitch Rebbe, came up during a dinner with Milei in 2023, which was attended by Dubois and Braun, among others. Somebody told the economist that the religious man, who died in 1994, kept up the tradition of welcoming his devotees from around the world. After a brief chat, he would give them one dollar as a gesture for people to go back where they came from and spread his word.
Eduardo Elsztain visited him on more than one occasion. That evening, at the table, they recalled a time the Lubavitch Rebbe gave him the note and said: “Invest in something you can touch”, and that was the starting point for the Irsa group. They also told him that Luis Alberto Lacalle, the father of Luis Lacalle Pou and former president of Uruguay, visited him in the late 1980s when he was very low in the polls. Apparently, the religious man assured him the situation would reverse and no sooner had the leader gone back to his country than his image went up.
After hearing these stories, Milei decided he had to go to the United States and entrusted Dubois with managing it with the rest of the team. In all, the economist visited his tomb three times: the first one to ask, the second one (after the PASO primaries) to ask and thank, and the third one (in December) to thank him.
The other relevant international trip from the M Group was the meeting with Elon Musk in April 2024. Fuks was key in this liaison, as he used his influences in the United States to build bridges with the Tesla tycoon.
The M Group is interested in letting it be known that they were the first ones who bet on Milei. Some contributed to the campaign and others put their contacts, friends and acquaintances at his disposal.
As of today, they say they can reach Milei and that their function continues to be focused on bringing ideas and proposals to the government. In addition, Oxenford (businessman who founded such companies as DeRemate, OLX and Letgo), Bastitta (co-founder of Plaza Logística) and Braun are part of the President’s Council of Advisors.
Some of the members of the M Group repeat that their sole mission is to make their experiences available to Milei. Yet during a stage of the administration which featured internal conflicto, the displacement of historic leaders and the arrival of new friends, it is likely that they realise that it is time to stop keeping a low profile and say they came before the rest.
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