Who’s who in Javier Milei’s cabinet
Argentina’s new ministerial cabinet has many figures connected with past center-right administrations, as well as ministers with no prior experience in public service. Southern Pulse dove beyond the headlines to clarify who’s who in the new government.
On 10 December 2023, Javier Milei was sworn in as Argentina’s new president. Milei is a charismatic figure who became popular by debating his unorthodox libertarian ideas on television, which gained traction in light of the country’s dismal economic situation. By the time the former center-left government left the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s annual inflation rate reached 150% and 40% of the country’s residents were living below the poverty line. These factors, coupled with import restrictions and price controls affecting the private sector, left the door open for an outsider like Milei to take the reins.
Milei ran for president with a party he had just created called La Libertad Avanza (LLA), whose radical platform focused on slashing government regulations, privatizing state-run companies and even shutting down the central bank. Milei blames Argentina’s economic troubles not just on the most recent administration, but what he calls “socialist mismanagement” in government for the past 80 years. Both the center-left Peronist party (founded in the 1940s) and the center-right Radical Civic Union (UCR) governed during this time.
These policies resonate with many, but Milei’s most fervent supporters especially embrace his alignment with the anarcho-capitalism (ANCAP) movement. Ancap is a libertarian ideology that claims markets should have no state regulation at all, and Milei wholly embraced this idea on the campaign trail by disguising himself as the “General Ancap” superhero. His inauguration ceremony was just as unusual, with Milei skirting the tradition of addressing Congressional lawmakers and instead greeting supporters in Buenos Aires’ Congressional Plaza.
But while Milei’s supporters see him as the symbol of an entirely new era for Argentina, he recruited many figures from past administrations. While the new president wants to deliver radical changes, he needs people on his side who know how to get things done and operate using their connections to link politicians with Argentina’s business sector.
Knowing he could not do these things with his newly-formed LLA party alone, Milei appointed several figures to his cabinet that surrounded the past administrations of former Peronist president Carlos Menem (1989-1999) and center-right Mauricio Macri (2015-2019). These ministers will have a high level of influence in the new administration. Meanwhile, others are completely new to the political sphere and will face a steep learning curve due to only having worked in the private sector.
Luis “Toto” Caputo, Economy Minister: A Macri ally at the heart of Milei’s pro-market reform agenda
Professional Experience: In the 1990s, Luis Caputo worked as JP Morgan’s trading chief for Latin America and led Deutsche Bank’s Argentina office. Caputo is also an economics professor at the Catholic University of Argentina. His first government position was finance minister for Macri’s administration from 2015 to 2018. Macri appointed Caputo as central banker in 2018, but he resigned just a few months later amid a rapid devaluation of the local currency. The International Monetary Fund (IMF)’s Western Hemisphere Department Director Alejandro Werner, responsible for designing the loan to bail out Argentina, wrote in his memoir that Caputo’s monetary policy was poorly implemented and contributed to Argentina’s inability to meet the IMF’s economic goals.
Goals and Priorities: As the new finance minister, Caputo aims to collect about USD40 billion with the IMF and Wall Street banks to pay the government’s debt denominated in local currency, and its foreign debt borrowed in US dollars. The bonds of state-run oil company YPF and social security administrator ANSES would be provided as collateral in those transactions, given that Argentina has a “junk” sovereign credit rating status after repeatedly failing to pay debts in recent decades. Caputo said that adopting the US dollar as legal tender is still the administration’s ultimate goal.
Connections: Caputo is a close friend of former president Macri. His second cousin, Santiago Caputo, was one of Milei’s digital communication strategists during his campaign. Milei said in his first speech as president-elect that Santiago was fundamental to his victory. The Caputo family is worth USD340 million, owning companies related to auto parts, electronics, and agriculture.
Diana Mondino, Foreign Affairs Minister: A new top diplomat aligned with the US
Professional Experience: Mondino has spent her career working in the private sector. She was a director for Standard and Poor’s (S&P) in Latin America.
Goals and Priorities: During her first day in office, Mondino signed a memorandum for Argentina to restart the process of joining the US-led bloc Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). Meanwhile, she announced that this administration would not join the China-led BRICS+ bloc, signaling a 180-degree reversal from the previous Peronist administration’s foreign policy. That policy was underscored by privileged political ties with Latin American countries and China. Despite that, Mondino has not been echoing the explosive remarks criticizing China that Milei made on the campaign trail. Just this week, Argentina announced Marcelo Suárez Salvia as its new ambassador to China.
Further evidence of Argentina’s Foreign Affairs Ministry changing its worldview is the country’s new stance on the Israel-Hamas war. In a shift from the prior administration, Argentina was one of the few countries to abstain from a United Nations resolution calling for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in Gaza last week, along with the US and Israel. Milei has also said he would move the Argentine embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, echoing past comments from US President Donald Trump. Whether he will implement this change remains to be seen.
Connections: Mondino has also worked as an economics professor at CEMA University (UCEMA), a prominent center of neoliberal ideas. Former president Menem’s finance minister Domingo Cavallo was also a professor there. Cavallo was the mastermind behind the economic “convertibility plan” that brought down Argentina’s inflation in the 1990s, making 1 Argentine peso equal to 1 US dollar. Other CEMA economists who served in Menem’s government also supported Milei this year. Cavallo’s plan ultimately failed to maintain macroeconomic stability and led to rising poverty and unemployment. The plan ended in 2002 after the central bank ran out of foreign currency reserves to keep the convertibility. Mondino has other family connections with the Menem administration, as both her husband and her brother worked for the national government back then.
Patricia Bullrich, Security Minister: Promises to be tough on protesters
Professional Experience: Bullrich is the president of the center-right PRO party, founded by former president Macri. She created a persona of being a tough-on-crime, anti-corruption champion. She served in the same position during the Macri presidency (2015-2019).
Goals and Priorities: Bullrich comes back to her old job after Macri made a deal to support Milei in the presidential run-off. Her first ordinance was to announce an anti-demonstration protocol on 14 December. She said that security forces would be deployed, keeping protesters from shutting down roads. Demonstrations would only be allowed to take place on sidewalks, and anyone identified as participating in the protests would have their cash-transfer aid programs canceled by the national government. Less than a week after her announcements, thousands took to the streets of downtown Buenos Aires to protest against Milei’s economic policies.
Bullrich will also face the challenge of curbing rising crime in the port city of Rosario, the second-largest metropolitan area nationwide. The criminal organization Los Monos has become entrenched in local politics there, as well as with the hooligans (barras bravas) of the popular soccer club Newell's Old Boys.
Bullrich may also be tasked with addressing actions by indigenous Mapuche groups in the southern Patagonia region. Radicalized Mapuche groups in Chile claim that modern Chilean and Argentinian states robbed their ancestors’ lands, and have targeted the government and several private companies with acts of sabotage.
Connections: Bullrich was a Peronist lawmaker in the 1990s, supporting the privatization of state-run companies and economic deregulation pursued by then-president Menem. She pushed for labor deregulation as labor minister from 2000 to 2001 during the center-right government of former president Fernando de la Rúa, who was best known for fleeing the presidential palace in a helicopter amid massive street protests against a controversial measure to limit bank withdrawals to USD250.
Guillermo Francos, Interior Minister: A pragmatic deal-maker who can navigate Argentina’s political and corporate milieus
Professional Experience: In the 1990s, Francos founded the conservative Acción por la República party with former finance minister Domingo Cavallo. Back then he was widely seen as the czar of Argentina’s currency stability during Menem’s presidency, due to his economic plan that pegged the value of the Argentine peso to the US dollar. Cavallo ran for president in 1999 but came in a distant third. Francos then worked in the private sector for seven years for airport administrator Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, which is part of the conglomerate Corporación América.
From 2007 to 2011, Francos was chairman of Buenos Aires province’s state-run bank. He was appointed by the then-governor, Daniel Scioli, from the Peronist party. He then returned to the private sector to work again at conglomerate Corporación América and met Milei, who was the company’s chief economist at the time.
Francos worked again for a Peronist-led administration in 2019, serving as the Argentine representative for the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) after being appointed by former president Alberto Fernández. Francos stepped down in 2023 during the electoral campaign to support Milei’s candidacy.
Goals and Priorities: Milei will task Francos with gathering support from governors and lawmakers for his bold, pro-market reformist agenda. This support will come either from the center-right Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) coalition, or centrist Peronists. Forming these alliances will be crucial for Milei’s party LLA, which has just 38 of 257 seats in the lower house and 8 of 72 in the Senate.
Connections: Francos worked in various leading private companies in Argentina. One of the most well-known was the conglomerate Corporación América, which owns companies in a broad array of sectors such as mining, agriculture, communications, energy, construction, banking, real estate, wine, and airport operations. The last of these, Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, is publicly traded on the New York Stock Exchange. The company is led by Eduardo Eurnekian, one of the wealthiest people in Argentina.
Sandra Pettovello, Human Capital Minister: A newcomer to politics managing a bureaucratic juggernaut
Professional Experience: Pettovello has no prior experience working in government. She has spent her career in the private sector, where she was a producer for Luis Majul’s television show. Majul is a household name in Argentina, and his coverage is favorable toward Milei. Majul’s show airs on the TV channel La Nación+ (not to be confused with La Nación), which is comparable to FOX News in the US.
Goals and Priorities: Pettovello will run the recently created Human Capital Ministry, which was formed by fusing five ministries: Education, Labor, Social Development, and Culture, plus Women, Gender, and Diversity. She will be in charge of reforming the national welfare system for low-income families. That system today is run by third-party institutions, many of which are political organizations affiliated with the Peronist party. A scenario in which she supports pro-life government programs or bureaucratic measures to bar abortion rights cannot be ruled out, given her pro-life background. This would almost certainly cause massive street demonstrations.
Connections: Pettovello is a high-profile figure within the pro-life movement in Argentina, which stands against legislation approved in 2021 to make abortion legal in the country. She holds a degree in Family Sciences from Austral University. This institution is historically linked to Opus Dei, a conservative sect of the Catholic Church.
Pettovello has publicly supported the small, conservative Ucedé party that participated in Carlos Menem’s coalition, and the center-right PRO party founded by Mauricio Macri.
Mario Russo, Health Minister: A pro-life health minister likely to face opposition from the influential feminist movement
Professional Experience: Russo was the health secretary for the municipality of San Miguel, near Buenos Aires, between 2009 and 2015. During his tenure, the government passed an act stating San Miguel as a “pro-life municipality” and celebrated the Day of the Unborn Child each year. After that, Russo held the same position for two years in the municipality of Morón. From 2017 to 2019, he served in a second-rank position under the health secretary for Buenos Aires province while PRO’s Maria Eugenia Vidal was governor.
Goals and Priorities: Given Russo’s record, it is likely that the ministry might promote pro-life policies such as implementing bureaucratic barriers to impede access to legal abortions. Meanwhile, Argentina’s inclusive public healthcare system will now face a major challenge as Milei’s administration plans to cut spending.
Connections: When Russo was health secretary in San Miguel and Morón, the local administrations were run by mayors from the center-right PRO party. Russo also has political ties with former economy minister and defeated presidential candidate Sergio Massa. Russo was a member of Massa’s party, working from 2020 to 2022 in public affairs for the state-run sanitation company AySA. Massa’s wife, Malena Galmarini, ran that company.
Luis Petri, Defense Minister: Bullrich’s running mate from the UCR party
Professional Experience: Petri entered politics when he was 26 as an aide for Mendoza’s provincial governor, who was part of the center-right UCR party. He climbed the party ladder until he became a national congressman for Mendoza, serving in that role from 2013 to 2021. He served as a member of the congressional Security Committee, calling for tougher prison conditions.
Petri was Patricia Bullrich’s running mate during her presidential campaign, with the pair failing to reach the run-off election. Just days after the first vote, Bullrich and Petri endorsed Milei.
Goals and Priorities: Friction could emerge between the new defense minister and his party if the government changes the way it refers to the history of the dictatorship. Milei is the first president to support the military junta’s stance that it did not commit crimes since Argentina regained democratic elections in 1983. During his campaign, Milei claimed that the military did not commit crimes, but that instead there was a war against left-wing subversive guerrilla groups. Petri’s UCR opposed the dictatorship, signaling that this could be a sensitive issue for UCR lawmakers.
Connections: Petri is affiliated with the center-right UCR party, which is part of the Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) coalition. Milei will likely task Petri with bringing UCR’s support to the new administration. This may not be easy considering that the party is led by Martin Lousteau, an economist who leans on progressive positions focused on the importance of economic distribution and issues such as same-sex marriage and abortion.
Guillermo Ferraro, Infrastructure Minister: A career consultant who will try to win private investments for infrastructure projects
Professional Experience: Ferraro has experience both in the public and private sectors. He worked under Peronist administrations and for the center-right PRO party when Mauricio Macri was mayor of the city of Buenos Aires. However, Ferraro spent most of his professional career working in the private sector. His last position was as a director at the multinational consulting group KPMG, where he was responsible for the financial modeling of infrastructure projects and government consulting.
Goals and Priorities: Ferraro’s Infrastructure Ministry will encompass five areas that were dispersed among different ministries under the past administration: mining, energy, transportation, communications, and public works. Milei wants Ferraro to lead his plan to use public-private partnerships for public works in Argentina, replacing the current model where only the government funds the projects. It is still unclear how the new model would play out.
Connections: One of Ferraro’s clients at KPMG was Eurnekian’s Corporación América. Local media outlets also claim he has a close relationship with Macri since they previously worked together.
Mariano Cúneo Libarona, Justice Minister: a lawyer with close relationships in politics, business, soccer, and the judicial branch
Professional Experience: Cúneo Libarona became a famous figure in political and judicial milieus in the 1990s for representing defendants in high-profile cases. These include the bombing of the Jewish civic center AMIA in Buenos Aires, in which he defended a police officer accused of conspiracy. He also acted as a lawyer for the families of former president Menem and business tycoon Eduardo Eurnekian.
Cúneo Libarona was also a legal advisor for the Racing Club and River Plate soccer teams, which are two of the most popular clubs nationwide. Like local soccer clubs in general, both are deeply entrenched in Argentine politics.
Goals and Priorities: Milei will task Cúneo Libarona to help advance his reformist agenda in courts, where opposition parties will challenge the government’s bills.
Connections: Cúneo Libarona has close relationships across the broad spectrum of Argentinian power brokers, including soccer clubs, politicians, business leaders and Supreme Court justices.
Bonus track: Nicolás Posse, Chief of Staff: Another figure from Eurnekian’s company
Professional Experience: Posse has never worked in the public sector. He worked for multinational companies with offices in Argentina and two of the largest Argentine corporations: Molinos de La Plata and Corporación América.
He was CEO of the retail company Dufry and project manager for the Aconcagua railway — Corporación America’s unrealized bi-oceanic corridor. The USD4 billion public-private partnership sought to connect the Argentine city of Mendoza to the Chilean coast and would have included a tunnel through the Andes Mountains. The project was never started.
Until July 2023, Posse was the regional director for airport operator Aeropuertos Argentina 2000, where he was in charge of 250 people. That group is also part of Corporación América. Posse’s first involvement with electoral politics was leading Milei’s LLA party policy team.
Goals and Priorities: Posse will be in charge of coordinating the work of all ministries, although he has no experience working in government. One of the first measures Milei’s government took was slashing new, government-funded public works projects.
Connections: Both Posse and Milei worked with Infrastructure Minister Guillermo Ferraro on the bi-oceanic corridor. He had worked in some of the largest private business organizations in Argentina.
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