Victoria Villarruel is right when she affirms that what she is doing in the Senate “is historic.” The fact is that, after 30 years of an assumed commitment, This year the Upper House decided to leave six students without the possibility of competing in the Mathematical Olympiad, when deciding – for the first time – not to pay the tickets. Página|12 spread the episode -which led to a project by the Peronist bench so that the kids can travel to England- and from the Presidency of the Senate they insisted with the refrain of “there’s no money”. The strange thing is that while Villarruel repeats that mantra on Twitter, under his breath Travel and per diem were financed both for some privileged senators and for the vice president’s own entourage..
Lucila Crexell can attest to this. The senator, who was in the eye of the storm when it came to light that – due to these “coincidences” – the Government offered her to be a UNESCO ambassador at the same time that the Base Law was being discussed, enjoyed the generosity of the Senate . In March, the legislator for now – although she already imagines herself in her Paris office and with a salary in dollars – was invited to participate in the Interparliamentary Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland. Federico Pávito, whom Villarruel put in charge of the General Directorate of Administration of the Senatesigned provision 54/2024 so that Crexell received five days of travel expenses and traveler insurance for seven days.
It was not the only time that the Neuquén senator had the approval of Villarruel. Months before, another invitation arrived at Crexell’s office. In this case, the invitation was to travel to Morocco to participate in a conference called “South-South Cooperation.” In reality, the offer had been for Bartolomé Abdala, but he generously gave his place to Crexell, even though she (at that time) was not a benchmate. The legislator accepted that invitation from the organization and asked the Senate to will pay you “traveler assistance insurance” for seven days. Despite the fact that “there is no money”, the Senate Presidency accepted and Crexell had peace of mind when it came to get on the plane.
Another lucky one was Juan Carlos Paggoto. In addition to the tickets freed up for the senators so they could travel to their homes, The senator from La Rioja also requested a trip to ParaguayThe excuse was the invitation to the Conference “Republican System and Federalism”, which took place in Asunción on March 11. Pávito laid the hook for the Senate to pay for the legislator’s tickets. Another sign that there was money there.
Villarruel’s gifts to his team
Once she assumed office as President of the Senate, Villarruel did not hesitate to assemble her team. And, faithful exponent of the military family, He began to fill the spaces with people who have reported to him for a long time. Some of them are daughters of soldiers who acted during the dictatorship and received sentences for crimes against humanity.
For example, as Luciana Bertoia said, the vice president brought to the Senate María Guadalupe Jones, daughter of Juan Carlos Jones Tamayo, a member of the Army intelligence structure sentenced to life imprisonment for crimes against humanity. Jones Tamayo was part of Operation Independence and his daughter defines him as a “hero” of the Pueblo Viejo combat, when an Army patrol – in February 1975 – ambushed a group of combatants from the People’s Revolutionary Army (ERP). . Even on her social networks, María Guadalupe questions the number of missing people, catalogs what happened as “a war” and says that the sentences of repressors are not justice but revenge. She described her father – who was a fugitive for many years – as a “political prisoner.”
The friendship between Jones and Villarruel (daughter) not only materialized in the appointment of María Guadalupe as administrative secretary of the Senate, but also in all the times that the president of the upper house decided to take her crony to add miles on different trips. for Argentina. Of course, the expenses were borne by the Senate. According to the resolutions to which it agreed Page|12, the General Directorate of Administration of the Senate decided to finance Jones’ trips to various destinations ranging from Salta -three visits-, Mendoza -also three times-, Catamarca and Córdoba. The official was even fortunate that one of the trips (Salta) fell just for Easter.
But Jones is not the only one. Enrique Bergalli, head of the Villarruel Office, was part, several times, of the delegation on the continuous trips organized by the vice president. To cite just one case, from March 1 to 3, Bergalli, Jones and Villarruel got on a plane to spend four days in Mendoza. The per diem and tickets of the Police officers who guarded them were also paid by funds from the Senate Budget.
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Those in charge of ceremonial María Laura Arnejo and Soledad Echeverry They also accumulated miles -with paid trips and per diems- to San Luis, Corrientes and Mendoza. It was not known whether he traveled or not -it is not in the files- is María de las Mercedes Torres, Villarruel’s close friend, who was appointed General Director of Ceremonial, Protocol and Hearings. As this newspaper reported, Torres (daughter of Fernando Torres, sentenced to life imprisonment for his actions during the years of State terrorism) had been at the center of the storm when a campaign on social networks – according to Clarionfinanced by Javier Milei’s Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) – used her appointment to attack the vice president’s private life.
Others who did have trips financed by the Senate were the Vice President’s Press team (Gaspar Bosch and Roberto Miguel Robledo) and even the Director of Culture of the Upper House, Daniel Abatean official who raises the power of discussion with tweets like this:
More travel expenses and tickets
The Senate also financed the travel expenses and fares of the agents who make up Villarruel’s security detail. Since the beginning of the year, the presence of police officers has been requested for the following trips:
- Bariloche (January 4 to 8)
- Córdoba (January 11 to 15)
- Blue (January 19)
- Salta (February 14 to 20)
- Corrientes and Paso de los Libres (from February 22 to 26)
- Mendoza (March 2 to 4)
- Chubut (March 12 to 18)
- Córdoba and Salta (from March 26 to April 2)
- Catamarca (from April 4 to 8)
- Salta (May 2 to 8)
- San Luis (from April 29 to May 5)
- Mar del Plata (May 17 to 20)
- Córdoba (May 24 to 26)
- Salta (from May 31 to June 2)
The General Directorate of Administration of the Senate approved all the requests and demanded that the Senate Budget take care of the transfers and lodging, in some cases, of police delegations of more than twelve agents.
The Upper House also – at the request of Villarruel – addressed the police custody travel expenses for three agents who have been staying, for four months, in the city of Rosario. As far as is known, Villarruel lives in Buenos Aires.
Project, Twitter crossing and more
Villarruel’s decision not to finance the trip of the six students who qualified for the Mathematical Olympiad did not cause a stir until Página|12 -and Tiempo Argentino- published the efforts of the children to collect what the Senate decided not to pay after thirty years.
From there, the Peronist bloc presented a project for the Upper House to guarantee the tickets of the six teenagers who dream of traveling to England (the stay is at the expense of the organization). It was there that Villarruel went out to cross Recalde with the refrain of “there is no money.”
The senator not only recalled the historical responsibility of the legislative body in financing this competition but also that the budget for paying tickets for legislators to travel to their territories “is only 40% executed.” And he recalled that the President himself – who boasts of saying that “there is no money” – has been out of the country for more than a month and a half due to his trips abroad.
These documents published by this newspaper complicate (even more) Villarruel’s excuse.
