— I hope you haven't gotten me into this mess on purpose. I don't think you're such a son of a bitch, Oscar, do you?
—But Marcela!
—Are you sure Javier knew?
— Obviously the President knew, I have it in writing on the phone.
— Show me your cell phone.
—How am I going to show you my cell phone?
—Show me. I want proof. Show me your cell phone!
—How can you not believe me? I tell you that Javier wrote to me and that he gave me the okay. He was aware of everything.
The deputies of La Libertad Avanza, Marcela Pagano and Oscar Zago, remained in a hallway of Congress. It was 12:30 on Wednesday. She had just been elected president of the Impeachment Commission, but the commotion was such that Pagano
came to suspect that the head of the ruling bloc had set a trap for her
. They had not spoken for four months, after a strong argument in December. They even say that Javier Milei interceded to get that bond on track. They resumed the dialogue on Saturday the 6th, when Zago sent her a message through a collaborator to tell her that she was her chosen one for the commission and that Milei had given her consent. Pagano, happy, thanked the president for his trust in a message on WhatsApp. Milei answered him as he usually does:
with colored hearts and thumbs up with his own face.
Zago and Pagano had met that Wednesday, half an hour before the meeting in which the commission authorities would be voted on, to talk about the appointment procedure. They went down to the living room together a few minutes before eleven. Emilio Monzó was already sitting, alone. Upon entering, Monzó had been struck by the movements of a woman who was walking on very high heels and who was manipulating a phone with which she seemed to film everything. The woman said:
“This is suspended, this is suspended
. ”
Monzó did not pay much attention to him. After a while he realized: it was the libertarian deputy Lilia Lemoine.
Although he is not part of the commission, Lemoine was going to break into room 7 on the third floor of the Deputies' Annex when the deputies were already seated. It was 11 o'clock. “Sorry, but this meeting cannot be held. You already have a clarifying email from the president of the Chamber,” said Lilia. Nobody had seen Martín Menem's email - or so they said -, which in some boxes was registered a minute before the agreed time.
“He entered at 10 hours, 59 minutes and 27 seconds.
Thirty-three seconds before the scandal,”
an advisor to a legislator would later reveal. Lemoine withdrew and the deputies tried to move forward with the agenda.
But, as soon as they took the floor, administrative secretary Miguel López, a career employee who clearly did not want problems, entered and said: “I regret to tell you that from the presidency of this House they ask me that the meeting not take place.
"They have to leave and I'm going to leave too."
"Sir, please stay," Monzó asked him.
"No, I'm leaving," said the secretary, and he left.
He was shaking.
The radical Fernando Carbajal was outraged. “This is mistreatment that we cannot tolerate, a shame. “The new Government was supposed to change this state of decay.” Carbajal would later target Menem: he called him irresponsible and improvised.
At one point,
the transmission and electricity were cut off in the living room.
The transmission did not return.
“This is nonsense,” said Kirchnerist Germán Martínez.
In the opposition that was most dialogue-oriented and closest to La Libertad Avanza, they quickly realized: if they did not vote for Pagano,
there was a risk that Kirchnerism would try to keep the presidency of a commission that is more than sensitive because it is the one that can initiate a trial against a president.
. It would not have been illegal for it to remain in the hands of the opposition: there are no regulations that prevent it. The impeachment commission is handed over to the ruling party by custom.
—We have a quorum. "Let's move forward," Monzó asked, as if he were throwing a cloak of mercy.
Paula Olivetto was clutching her head. The Civic Coalition legislator, who was proposed as vice president of the commission, let the bad news pass and decided to support. Leopoldo Moreau, elected as second vice president, too.
—What happened is disrespectful. On behalf of the ruling party, I apologize. "Let's continue
," Zago said.
They took attendance. There were 19 deputies. Enough.
The power went out again.
But there was a vote and agreement.
The night before, Martín Menem had argued with Zago.
“I have to take her down
,” he told her on the phone, referring to Pagano. “I can't, I already told her and she talked to Javier,” Zago replied. Menem then confessed to Zago that
it was a direct order from Karina Milei
. That it had to be done. Something that he would repeat several times on Thursday in private talks. Menem's tension with Zago lasted until after two in the morning on Wednesday. Pagano, at that moment, was incommunicado: in the square,
while she was walking her dog, her cell phone had been stolen.
Zago and Menem did not agree. They ended the conversation on bad terms. Menem would say in the media that Karina did not ask him for anything. She wasn't telling the whole truth.
With the authorities voted, Menem ignored the procedure. He requested a new meeting to agree on the authorities for next Thursday at 11. As a matter of urgency, the majority of the deputies of La Libertad Avanza met and appointed Gabriel Bornoroni as the new block head. Zago and two other deputies left the space and assembled their own team. And Pagan?
Good question
. He didn't talk to anyone about his next steps. He actually did talk to someone. With only one person:
with the President
.
The breakup of the libertarian bloc occurs just when the Government hopes that Congress will approve its first law, after more than four months of administration,
an orphanhood that no other democratic administration has experienced
since 1983. On Tuesday night the new draft of the Base Law, with 279 articles, with which he hopes to have a shock of confidence and satisfy a request from the IMF.
Milei followed the agenda from the United States. She had a week, like everyone else, very intense. The CGT announced a mobilization for May 1 and the second general strike for May 9. In the middle, the inflation number for March was known: 11%, which confirms a consecutive decrease since December. The reserves continue to grow: they are already positive and the mileismo is enthusiastic about the lifting of the stocks before the middle of the year.
When the weekend began, Milei announced on the X network her separation from Fátima Florez.
“You have to be in her shoes, eh, she looks at everything that is happening to her
,” said an old friend of the head of state.
Before announcing the separation from the actress, Milei had a meeting with her admired Elon Musk. The President wants the businessman to come visit Argentina. That is the minor objective. He will also try to get him to invest in the country.
On Friday, before leaving Texas, Milei had fun revving the Cybertruck pickup truck, a 600-horsepower dual-motor craft and an 845-horsepower three-motor model, which can tow up to 11,000 pounds and go from 0 to 10,000 pounds. 100 kilometers of speed in just three seconds. Someone suggested to Milei that she bring one to the country.
Carlos Menem had the Ferrari, he could have his Cybertruck.
Milei liked the idea. It remains to be seen if she is encouraged by such ostentation in a country that always seems to succumb to the point of collapse.