Karina Milei cumplió un rol clave durante la campaña electoral y lo sigue siendo durante la gestión, como secretaria general de Presidencia. Está en el detalle de toda actividad de su hermano mayor y cultiva un perfil bajo

Who is Karina Milei, sister and strategist of Argentina’s new president?

The country’s new elected leader calls her ’The Boss’ and ‘The Messiah.’ This is what we know about the woman who decides who gets access to the president

La toma de posesión de Javier Milei como nuevo presidente de Argentina el domingo 10 de diciembre estuvo marcada por el rol central que ocupó en el acto su hermana y mano derecha, Karina Milei. La familiar del nuevo líder argentino ha desempeñado un papel clave en la trayectoria electoral y en el ascenso a la presidencia del ultraderechista y que tras su victoria se traduce en un cargo dentro del nuevo Ejecutivo.

Now that the far-right Javier Milei, 53, is the new president of Argentina, the spotlight is on the other Milei, a woman as powerful as she is discreet who likes to dress in intense colors. The president’s little sister is the person he trusts the most, his campaign strategist, his stylist, someone he describes as “the Messiah.” Dressed in white, Karina Milei, 50, occupied the place designated for first ladies this Sunday at the inauguration, and she accompanied her brother to the Casa Rosada, the seat of government, aboard the presidential convertible. When Milei greeted foreign delegations, there she was, standing next to the new president. When Milei addressed the crowds from the balcony of government headquarters, she was visible in the shadows.

Many in Argentina consider her the brains behind the Milei phenomenon. Since he burst into Argentine politics like a whirlwind — for some as a badly needed breath of fresh air, for others as a serious danger — Milei has left many statements that are difficult to forget. Some are dedicated to Karina. “You know that Moses was a great leader, but he was not good at spreading the word. Then, God sent Aaron to spread the word. Well, Kari is Moses and I am the one who spreads the word. I’m just a disseminator,” Milei explained during an interview, excited and in tears. By then, Milei was a lawmaker in Congress. There was one year left for the presidential campaign. Months later, Milei was in a meeting with some rabbis when they talked about the Messiah, whose return to Jerusalem the Jewish people are still awaiting, and the politician said, according to the local media: “The thing is, the Messiah is my sister, she has already arrived.” The rabbis must have been stunned.

Karina Elizabeth Milei is two years younger than her only brother. Little is known about her, only what the politician has said, what both allies and detractors of the couple have leaked about them, and little else. She keeps a low profile, does not grant interviews, and few people have heard her voice.

They are children of a marriage formed by a bus driver and a housewife. They grew up in the Villa Devoto neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and went to the same Catholic school. Both are single, without children. And for years they have been a professional couple.

Karina always had a very close relationship with Javier, who as a child was mistreated by his father while his mother stood by in silence, something for which he has not forgiven them. He was also harassed by his schoolmates. The son did not speak to his parents for years, and in public he called them his “progenitors.” But on election night, Mr. and Mrs. Milei were with their children during the vote count and at the moment of victory. Karina never severed the bond with her parents. In that loneliness that accompanied Javier in his childhood and adolescence, Karina was often his only company.

On the night of the election victory, Karina Milei spoke for the first time at a public event. She was in charge of giving way to the victory speech in a hotel in Buenos Aires: “I want to introduce the president-elect, Javier Milei,” she proclaimed before greeting attendees. She was visibly excited, while he kept an earnest demeanor. In case there were any doubts, at the most important moment of his life, the first person that Javier Milei thanked for his resounding victory was Karina: “Without her, none of this would have been possible.”

Skinny, petite, with dyed blonde hair, Javier calls her Kari; also El Jefe, as in “the (male) boss” or sometimes first lady.

Many in Argentina consider her the brains behind the Milei phenomenon. Since he burst into Argentine politics like a whirlwind — for some as a badly needed breath of fresh air, for others as a serious danger — Milei has left many statements that are difficult to forget. Some are dedicated to Karina. “You know that Moses was a great leader, but he was not good at spreading the word. Then, God sent Aaron to spread the word. Well, Kari is Moses and I am the one who spreads the word. I’m just a disseminator,” Milei explained during an interview, excited and in tears. By then, Milei was a lawmaker in Congress. There was one year left for the presidential campaign. Months later, Milei was in a meeting with some rabbis when they talked about the Messiah, whose return to Jerusalem the Jewish people are still awaiting, and the politician said, according to the local media: “The thing is, the Messiah is my sister, she has already arrived.” The rabbis must have been stunned.

Karina Elizabeth Milei is two years younger than her only brother. Little is known about her, only what the politician has said, what both allies and detractors of the couple have leaked about them, and little else. She keeps a low profile, does not grant interviews, and few people have heard her voice.

They are children of a marriage formed by a bus driver and a housewife. They grew up in the Villa Devoto neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and went to the same Catholic school. Both are single, without children. And for years they have been a professional couple.

Karina always had a very close relationship with Javier, who as a child was mistreated by his father while his mother stood by in silence, something for which he has not forgiven them. He was also harassed by his schoolmates. The son did not speak to his parents for years, and in public he called them his “progenitors.” But on election night, Mr. and Mrs. Milei were with their children during the vote count and at the moment of victory. Karina never severed the bond with her parents. In that loneliness that accompanied Javier in his childhood and adolescence, Karina was often his only company.

Representative of the La Libertad Avanza (Freedom Advances) party, she signed the document in which the party denounced “a colossal fraud” in the final stretch of the campaign, a statement that the party walked back the next day. She did not even bother to respond to the summons she received from electoral authorities.

“You always have to have someone to report to. In my case, I report to my sister,” said Milei in another interview prior to his victory. She is the person who for years has managed his agenda, his interviews, his conferences in Argentina and abroad. And she is the gatekeeper, the person who controls who has access, and who does not, to the economist who has blown up Argentine politics. A control that she exerted with an iron fist as her older brother advanced towards the presidency.

Karina Milei has a degree in public relations, studied pastry making, is an amateur sculptor and was at one time a co-owner of a tire store. When her brother was just an economist who was starting to go on TV as a talk show guest, she was already in charge of managing his assets.

It was also Karina who convinced Javier to banish the suits he was wearing and adopt that veteran rocker look with leather jackets like the one he wore to vote in the presidential election. The populist candidate only got out of the car after the Boss inspected the cordon of private bodyguards hired to protect him as he made his way down the fenced corridor and into the polling station.

“She is the most wonderful being in the world,” he said of her in another interview. It remains to be seen what role Karina will adopt now that her brother’s term is beginning: whether she prefers to continue working behind the scenes, whether she jumps into the public sphere as a powerful first lady or, who knows, whether she will assume an executive position in the next government.

Karina Milei será la nueva secretaria general de la Presidencia, un puesto que podrá ocupar gracias a la modificación del Decreto 93/2018 llevada a cabo por Javier Milei y publicada en el Boletín Oficial de la República de Argentina este lunes.

• Esta norma, promulgada en 2018 durante el mandato de Mauricio Macri, prohibía la designación y contratación de personas para el Sector Público Nacional que tuviesen algún vínculo de parentesco de hasta segundo grado con el presidente o vicepresidente del Gobierno de Argentina, así como con ministros y altos cargos del Ejecutivo.
• El nuevo líder del Gobierno ha justificado esta modificación de la normativa indicando que la Constitución Nacional consagra en su artículo 16 el principio de idoneidad para el acceso a los cargos públicos. Así, Milei ha establecido que estas condiciones se acojan a excepción de los nombramientos que el presidente del país decida realizar debido a su idoneidad.

Así, Karina Milei juró el cargo en el nuevo Gobierno de Argentina este domingo ante su hermano, quien se mostró emocionado durante el discurso protocolario en un acto al que no asistieron medios de comunicación.

Quién es Karina Milei, la nueva secretaria general de la Presidencia argentina y hermana de Javier Milei

Karina Milei nació en 1972, dos años después de Javier Milei. Los dos hermanos crecieron juntos en el seno de una familia de clase media que vivía en el barrio de Villa Devoto en Buenos Aires y ambos cursaron sus estudios primarios y secundarios en el instituto católico Cardenal Copello.

La nueva secretaria general de la Presidencia de Argentina es licenciada en Relaciones Públicas por la Universidad Argentina de la Empresa (UADE) y tiene un posgrado en eventos. Ha trabajado en negocios familiares pero desde hace más de diez años se dedica íntegramente a organizar la vida pública y bienes de Javier Milei.

Así, Karina Milei se encarga de dirigir la agenda de su hermano y coordinar todo su trabajo. También, ha sido su principal acompañante y estratega de campaña tanto en las elecciones a la Cámara Baja en 2021 como en los pasados comicios presidenciales en los que Javier Milei obtuvo la victoria.

• Según asegura la BBC, que cita a Juan Luis González, periodista y autor de la biografía de Milei, Karina Milei ha sido la artífice de algunas de las propuestas y actividades que más éxito han tenido entre los seguidores del nuevo presidente argentino. De ella fue la idea de sortear el sueldo que Javier Milei recibía como diputado todos los meses, así como la iniciativa de dar clases públicas de economía alrededor del país.
• También ha sido la encargada de la puesta en escena rockera que ha mostrado Javier Milei en cada presentación durante su campaña, ocupándose de detalles como la música de fondo o la vestimenta de su familiar. “Mi hermana siempre me espera en el escenario porque es la gran arquitecta”, afirmó el mandatario en una entrevista a La Nación.

Sin embargo y, a diferencia de su hermano, Karina Milei mantiene un perfil bajo, alejado de los medios de comunicación y de la vida pública.

El presidente argentino da a conocer a su hermana como “El Jefe”

Tal es la influencia de Karina Milei sobre su hermano que el nuevo presidente la ha dado a conocer bajo el apodo de “El Jefe”, al mantener un rol clave y tener la última palabra en las decisiones que toma el nuevo presidente argentino.

• Javier Milei utiliza este apodo para referirse a su hermana en la mayoría de mensajes que le dedica. El nuevo mandatario publicó el pasado 7 de diciembre tras la jura de los nuevos diputados del Congreso una imagen de Karina acompañada de un mensaje en el que señalaba que “El Jefe le ganó a la casta”. “Demasiada grandeza para ser entendida por el humano promedio. Hoy contempló parte de su obra”, añadió.
• El nuevo mandatario argentino también ha declarado la relevancia de su hermana a nivel internacional. Tras la toma de posesión del cargo el pasado 10 de diciembre, Javier Milei presentó a Karina al líder ucraniano, Volodimir Zelenski, indicando que “ella es el verdadero jefe”.

En este sentido, Javier Milei ha llegado a expresar que “Moisés era un gran líder, pero no un gran divulgador. Dios le mandó a Aarón para que se comunicara. Yo soy a Kari lo que Aarón es a Moisés”, como simbolismo para explicar la influencia de su hermana sobre él, según recoge MasPrensa.

Karina Milei: the most feared woman in Argentina’s new libertarian government

Javier Milei’s sister is his gatekeeper and guard – she handles the president’s agenda and the cash. The collaborators she has expelled and those she holds in her sights. Karina Milei’s grudge against Victoria Villarruel and Fátima Florez. Her mystical connections and past as a baker. A look at the presidential chief-of-staff – the most feared woman in government.

he meeting was at the Hotel Libertador in downtown Buenos Aires. Javier Milei had already won the election and in a matter of days, he was set to be inaugurated as president. That is why a group of high-flying businesspeople – no more than a dozen in total – got together and asked for a meeting. They wanted to get a glimpse of the Argentina that was coming down the road.

The talk didn’t go as the business leaders imagined it. The person who had just received the most votes in the election was seated in front of them in the hotel’s presidential suite. But he was offering no answers. To almost any topic at all. In fact, every time he opened his mouth, the libertarian gave a similar stock reply. 

“That’s all very well, but we need to talk it over with The Boss,” “That’s The Boss’s job,” “That’s up to the Boss.” The business leaders, people who handle millions of dollars of business via their companies and pay the salaries of thousands of people, left the meeting feeling disconcerted.

The man who had set up the meeting approached Milei when the meeting was over, to say a few words in confidence before leaving. “Javier, I say this because I love you and respect you. You’re the President of Argentina. You can’t tell us you don’t make any decisions, that someone else is the boss. Otherwise no-one will take you seriously, you see? They’re going to want to meet the boss, not you,” he explained with the patience of a primary school teacher. 

The libertarian president-elect had one more surprise in store. With total seriousness written across the face, Milei said the problem was not him, but them. “You don’t understand,” he said. “She’s Moses.”

‘Moses’ is The Boss. And The Boss is Karina Milei, the most important person in Argentina’s brand-new government. 

Almost as much as her brother.

—

“Suppose you’re the next President. What position would your sister have?” journalist Eduardo Feinmann asked Milei in an April 2022 interview. 

“Whichever she wants,” responded the then-lawmaker chuckling. “Because deep down – I mean, I think she would be more of a First Lady. There’s a joke we make with her: that I did all this just to make her First Lady.”

A few things have changed ever since, such as, for instance, that the interviewee is indeed now the President and installed in the Casa Rosada. The position the economist had envisioned for her has also changed, although he’d said in several interviews that she’d have no formal role. Karina is no First Lady – she’s the general secretary to the President. 

That position, on paper, normally means that whoever holds it is a key personal assistant to the head of state. How many people know or could identify her predecessor in the post? 

Karina monopolises everything. And I mean everything. She is the person who never leaves Javier’s side. From attending Cabinet meetings with him (she is the first to read the papers her brother must later review), to going with him on his trip to Bahía Blanca, being by his side while he visited those injured by the storm. She is the one who reviewed the names and CVs of ministerial candidates, who gave some the thumbs down and others the thumbs up. 

She also commandeered the attack that barred such historical leaders from Milei’s La Libertad Avanza party as Ramiro Marra and Carolina Píparo from entering the government entirely (similar to a raid she led in mid-2022, when she threw out the founding group of La Libertad Avanza, consisting of, among others, Carlos Maslatón and Eduardo Prestofelippo, better known as ‘El Presto’).

These are merely a few examples. On the other hand, it is more difficult to see Karina’s hands in the government’s ideas or completed bills. There are a few: the raffle of Javier’s per diem salary each month when he was a deputy, the insistence on running for president in 2023 (when many within the space said, after the midterms, that first he needed to go for Buenos Aires City),Milei’s rockstar aesthetic – these are all her work.

However, Karina’s mark on the government and the space in general is more visible when one looks at what does not happen. Or more specifically, what she prevents from happening. She is, above all, her brother’s sentry. The one looking out for him, mistrusting and wary. She has a mission, which was quickly revealed to ministers: no-one in the government can dare compete with her brother’s exclusive stardom, which conveniently goes hand-in-hand with her own. Everyone else is a supporting actor.

Everyone who has been expelled from the space – for having a voice or their own career – knows this, even Interior Minister Guillermo Francos. During the last stretch of the campaign he raised his profile too much (which stood out thanks to his presence as a career politician as opposed to the rest of the space). Karina, the ever-present guard, reminded him that his was a very different task. Ever since then, Francos stopped showing up in public so much. 

“I’ve seen people who get nervous and stuck when they get to the Casa Rosada. But not Karina. She’s not afraid of power. She’s like a fish taking to water,” claimed a source with an office there. Another source said: “Karina has no enemies, because if you fight her, you’re out.” 

Vice-President Victoria Villarruel and Fátima Florez, Milei’s girlfriend, are among those on her watchlist.

—

There is another aspect in which Karina seeks to look after her brother. It is rather mundane, but it comes with the weight of the brutal force of biology: Milei’s double chin. The President has a sort of complex about that part of his body – hence the pose he uses for selfies. And that is why they also banned photographers from entering the congressional chamber on the day of his inauguration: from that place, from the angle, they can only take photos from below. 

The Boss if aware of this matter – as are all those around Milei – and that is why the mechanism to the publication an image of the chief executive is a well-oiled machine. The snap is taken, Karina sends it quickly to Eugenia Rolón – one of her trusted influencers with an office at Casa Rosada – who edits it and sends it back. The double chin is gone, thanks to the power of Photoshop.

Ever since political communication specialist Santiago Caputo introduced his uncle, former finance minister Luis Caputo, to Milei over a year ago, the relationship has grown. Today, ‘Toto’ is now the nation’s economy minister.

Prior to his election win, the libertarian had sought to feel out the ex-Mauricio Macri administration official and assess his take on joining a future government. Every time, he received the same answer: Caputo’s wife and children, who had suffered a lot due to their husband and father being in the limelight (including harassment at a few events which was never reported), did not want him to return to government. 

Karina proposed to her brother for all four of them to go to dinner. There Milei told the Caputo couple one of the most important phrases in his head, which, according to his beliefs, he got through a “channel of light”, opened up by his dead dog Conan with God. “Toto, you’re part of the mission, you’re a chosen one.” 

Although the phrase may sound grandiose, the truth is that ever since that dinner, Caputo’s wife never objected to the project again. Quite the contrary: she is now very excited about the government.

Even though it is merely an anecdote, the scene reflects the heart of the Milei siblings’ adventure. They believe God chose them, and everything they do stems from that idea: they are convinced that their life is part of a prophetic plan designed by a higher force, a mystical conviction to perform government tasks in the depth of their measures and projects. That is essential to understanding Karina’s power as well: she is The Boss not only because she is the only one who was by her brother’s side throughout a lonely and difficult life, but because she plays a central role in that mystical connection. She was the one who claimed she could talk to animals, both living and dead, the one communicating Milei with his dead dog.

According to Milei, she was chosen by God too. “I’m Aaron, the brother disseminating Moses’ ideas, but Kari is Moses,” he told Viviana Canosa in a famous interview with tears in his eyes. A curious piece of information: Aaron is also the name of Karina’s dog: “My nephew,” as the President calls the pup, who these days became famous after showing up at a programme with his owner hosted by Guido Kaczka in 2016. 

It is a singular blend of names, but it is not the only one. Milei also calls God “The Boss,” and he swears that he does not leave his house without a piece of paper in his pocket with those two words on it, to remind him constantly about the presence of He who gave him a divine mission – and She who assists it.

Therein lies Karina’s power. She was born out of the ins and outs of Milei’s difficult life, of his difficulty solving issues (unless they are economic, the area where he feels most comfortable), out of the mystical dimension, but also from his sister’s desire for stardom. 

—

Until a couple of years ago, Karina was selling cakes on social networks, reading tarot cards and communicating with dead animals. She struggled to make ends meet and Milei often gifted her part of his salary. 

While she has a degree in public relations from the UADE university, she has held no known jobs beyond her digital bakery and a company selling tyres, which their father established and which she later ran.

Now she concentrates the power of a government. She does it in a strange way, choosing fanaticism and opening up very little of the game. 

Many people in the ruling party point to one fact: it took one month for Karina to appoint her first female official for the government. She has no senators or deputies answering to her, except for Romina Diez from Santa Fe. Her only political terminal was spin doctor Carlos Kikuchi, whom she sacked two months ago. “Just like she screwed me, she’ll screw us all,” he afterwards told some 10 legislators from the space on that day as he stormed out of the Hotel Libertador. 

Kikuchi has put together a separate caucus in the Buenos Aires Province Senate.

“She wants to be the star. She has a parallel agenda, which is not just Milei’s. She likes stardom and money, too,” said one of the first people to be expelled from the space, who wanted to remain anonymous.

Karina Milei’s skills in her government position have yet to be seen. Fernando de Andreis, who held the same role during the Mauricio Macri years, is helping her with what he can and it would seem the woman is forging her first weapons. 

The Milei siblings’ move to the Olivos presidential residence was delayed but as of this week, they are now installed there. There wasn’t any hurry – The Boss was handling things.