José Luis Espert’s fall from grace was dramatic, portentous. In just a few weeks he went from one of the pillars of Javier Milei’s government, presiding over the Budget Committee in the Chamber of Deputies and leading the candidate list in Buenos Aires Province (“the mother of all battles”) to a political outcast who seems absolutely finished. His ties to Federico Andrés ‘Fred’ Machado, accused of drug-trafficking by the United States government, were well-known and documented ever since Noticias investigative reporter Rodis Recalt began chronicling the odds and ends of the first national libertarian campaign for president in 2019. At the time, Milei was a second-tier player among the far-right anti-Kirchnerites who sought to shock the political system by capitalising on discontent and disillusionment. Indeed, it is just a matter of timing that Espert and his ragtag crew didn’t make it to the Casa Rosada, while Milei and his squad did. In many ways, Espert paved the way, first as a loudmouth economist with an aggressive rhetoric on cable news television that was replicable on social media, before making the jump to politics with his presidential bid in 2019.
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