The internal struggle within the libertarian camp was once again exposed this week with a high-impact move: Karina Milei scored a decisive victory by gaining political control of the Ministry of Justice, displacing the faction loyal to advisor Santiago Caputo (the 'Kremlin Wizard') in the reshuffle following Mariano Cúneo Libarona's departure.
The appointment of Juan Bautista Mahiques as minister and Santiago Viola as number two, replacing Sebastián Amerio, reconfigured the power map at the heart of the government's judicial system and reignited tensions between the 'earthly' figures of the Secretary-General of the Presidency and the so-called 'forces of heaven' orbiting the presidential strategist.
The real question, however, is how much influence the advisor wields today in an area that was recently considered one of his most sensitive strongholds. In libertarian corridors, Amerio's ousting was read as a disciplinary message towards the 'heavenly' wing: not only did they lose the minister's post—a position some had hoped for their own candidate—but also the day-to-day control of the portfolio.
The first aspect is institutional: Milei needed to finalize a transition that had been delayed for months, marked by attempts at resignation and postponements from Cúneo Libarona. But internally, the move carries a power lesson: the President's sister does not just manage the government's policy.
In this power vacuum, the State Intelligence Directorate (SIDE) inevitably comes under scrutiny. Various chronicles agree that the sector learned of the change just minutes before the announcement was made public. Under this scheme, different journalistic reports indicate that Karina Milei seeks to expand her influence over strategic state sectors, and intelligence appears as the next natural field for this expansion, which needs to be organized.
In the past, the AFA, under Julio Grondona's leadership, significantly contributed to the return of the frigate Libertad, seized by a 'vulture fund,' but all this was done in silence and coordinated by the state. Therefore, the battle for Justice is not an isolated chapter: it is a signal of the method.
Karina Milei consolidates power with a logic of territorial control within the state, placing her own trusted people in key areas and reducing the autonomy of the wing embodied by Caputo. But for the internal libertarian struggle, the most relevant data was not the minister's name but that of the secretary: Viola is an attorney for La Libertad Avanza (LLA), a man of Milei's utmost trust, and his arrival implies that the 'control table' for Justice now lies with the President's sister.
On the Caputo side, the official message was one of discipline: 'it's the President's decision, and we respect it,' they repeated near the advisor, trying to prevent the defeat from being read as a rupture. After the reform by decree that reconfigured the structure and functions of the intelligence system, the dispute for effective control of the area was left in a gray zone, with multiple political and operational terminals.
The slogan was clear: lower the foam without admitting setbacks. In this climate, the episode that graphically illustrated the internal blow was Amerio's departure from the Council of the Magistracy: the man who had been Caputo's strongman in the second tier of Justice reportedly learned of the change during a meeting of the body, explained the situation, and withdrew, leaving records in the virtual meeting format.
From the Casa Rosada's perspective, the move has two planes. The intervention of the entity led by Claudio 'Chiqui' Tapia—with its own contacts and bridges in Caracas—put the Executive in an uncomfortable position, especially in the foreign affairs area, directed by a contemporary of the former agent Stiuso with a direct line to Santiago Caputo: while the government sought to capitalize on the gendarme's return as a diplomatic achievement, various journalistic reports described how the negotiation and effective release occurred through an alternative channel, outside the state's formal circuit, where even if 'Tapia opened the door,' the control of the operation should have been executed by SIDE and Tapia should have remained in the shadows.
In TNA's view, this episode exposed a greater problem: when a sports body becomes a central actor in a sensitive international operation—outside the formal state channels—the center of the debate is not the 'merit' of the rescue operation, but the void of the state.
Image and body language: Karina Milei looks at Caputo, who averts his gaze.
The change was officially made mid-morning and even surprised those in the hard core of Caputism. Milei does not have to 'solve' a humanitarian case as if it were a rescue agency, but the state as a whole should have coordinated capabilities to anticipate, manage, and close crises with formal tools, without remaining dependent on parallel networks.
