Santiago Caputo came out of his shell and the City is burning, after the debate

Santiago Caputo came out of his shell in 48 hours. Furiously, the government's star advisor was the protagonist of several public situations that are unusual for the most powerful man after the presidential term, as Javier Gerardo Milei himself acknowledged when he said he was "a comptroller" after that of Chief of Staff Guillermo Francos and prior to the presidential review.

The sequence of the last 72 hours is as follows: he was seen at River Plate's stadium watching the derby, where he barely covered himself with a hat in the middle of the "millionaire" crowd and where he was discovered by a camera from the program " And tomorrow what?", by Luciana Geuna on TN . The advisor - a well-known Boca Juniors fan - arrived there and positioned himself in the stands of the Monumental far from Manuel Vidal , a man he trusted and the club director in charge of the club's educational area, who, with their victory, ejected Fernando Gago from the coach's chair. That photo took place while Javier and Karina Milei were at the Casa Rosada paying tribute to the Spanish economist Jesús Huerta del Soto. One in a popular stadium and others, in the Government House...

The following night, Monday, Caputo attended a dinner full of politicians and even sought out Mauricio Macri so he could be photographed as he greeted the PRO president with laughter. This was just as tensions between the Yellows and La Libertad Avanza were growing in the City of Buenos Aires—where the vote will be held on May 18—and when negotiations in the province of Buenos Aires were being led (with a dog-eat-dog attitude) by Karina Milei and her aide Sebastián Pareja , who has declared that the PRO could join a coalition, but not as partners, but rather by joining the Violet Party list. Another coincidence?

But his peak exposure came Tuesday night when he unexpectedly accompanied Manuel Adorni to the debate between Buenos Aires legislative candidates held on Canal de la Ciudad. Caputo clashed with his longtime friend Ramiro Marra before the debate and became undemocratically and intolerantly upset with a photographer who wanted to photograph him, even checking his ID to find out his name. Dangerous for a man who controls SIDE and ARCA, the former AFIP...

Santiago Caputo's visit to the Buenos Aires debate was at Adorni's request, according to sources close to the star advisor and the presidential spokesperson, as they work together on media coverage. As time goes by, we'll have to see why Santiago Caputo, accustomed to operating—until now—in the Machiavellian shadows of power, came out of his shell so abruptly. Is everything going according to plan?

The Buenos Aires electoral battle reached its peak this Tuesday with the debate between the top candidates on the 17 lists! who will compete on Sunday, May 18, voting with a single electronic ballot. The city's current leaders have a lot at stake, as, for the first time, they are seeing their 17-year leadership in Buenos Aires City challenged by a force targeting the same audience—La Libertad Avanza—which could lead to Peronism taking first place, led by Radical Party leader Leandro Santoro.

This concern was demonstrated in the talk given at the Buenos Aires City headquarters in Uspallata by campaign manager María Eugenia Vidal and Catalan analyst Antoni Gutiérrez-Rubí , who is advising the Macris in this electoral campaign. The two campaign leaders spoke before PRO representatives, pledging to work hard to consolidate the PRO's historic vote in the city. They highlighted the concept they see today of "confusion regarding what is being voted on," since the majority of Buenos Aires residents don't know that, in less than twenty days, they will vote and elect the members of their local legislature.

The meeting with activists and political leaders in Uspallata also included a paragraph on how to convince residents that they will surely vote in the national election in October supporting Javier Milei, but that they must now understand that to defend the City, they must vote for the PRO , based on its experience in government and to give continuity to the 17 years of change that the PRO brought about, after the failed experience of Aníbal Ibarra.

The yellow leaders are confident that in the final sprint, the priority will be to "not lose what has been gained over the years" (according to one of the speakers), but some called for attention to be paid to the bad mood caused in Buenos Aires by insecurity, the issue of garbage, and the profusion of fines collected by the city's cameras, which have reportedly decreased significantly in recent times. "No more flooding!"

The savage fight between Axel Kicillof and the Kirchners has added another chapter . After the approval of the suspension of the PASO (Primaries), the closing dates for the lists of candidates remain to be defined. The Kirchnerist party is betting that the provincial and national lists will have to be agreed upon within a few days of each other, which would require extremely tough negotiations to decide everything from a councilor seat in Avellaneda to the list of national deputies. In this scenario, the names of Cristina Elisabet Kirchner and Sergio Massa would be considered simultaneously for both the Buenos Aires Legislature and the national Chamber of Deputies, and would put the Kicillofist party in a difficult position, as it lacks any relevant names to head either of those ballots.

With no signs of rapprochement between the governor and the former president, several leaders have played the role of "matchmakers": Sergio Massa was the matchmaker in the summer, and now, the intermediaries have begun to be Federico Otermín (mayor of Lomas de Zamora), as well as Federico Achaval from Pilar, and Gustavo "Tano" Menéndez from Merlo.

For the moment, no news has emerged, and all eyes are on Hilda Kogan, a minister of the Supreme Court of Justice of Buenos Aires Province, but the minister in charge of elections has already expressed her displeasure with the dilemma of the dates without defining the closing of lists before facing the split election on September 7.

Meanwhile, Axel Kicillof is talking with his political allies—Carli Bianco, "Cuervo" Larroque, Gabriel Katopodis, Cristina Álvarez Rodríguez, and Jorge Ferraresi —and they're all thinking about Mario Secco, owner of the Frente Grande party label , who could be their last resort in the event of a final fight if Peronism breaks down in Argentina's largest province. And as always, we'll give a heartfelt shout...