Senate: Victoria Villarruel takes physical distance from libertarians

A week after the scandal that broke out in the Senate with the Tierra del Fuego MP Cristina López, Victoria Villarruel decided to go all out in the redistribution of offices in the Upper House.

A week ago, the senator reported that she was the victim of a violent physical attack by guards assisting the vice president as she tried to retrieve her belongings from an office that had been closed because it no longer belonged to Salteño Senator Sergio “Oso Leavy,” who had agreed to share the premises with the senator about to be sworn in. Computer since the door had been blocked over the weekend by Villarruel’s decision. According to the complaint, security personnel had set up a “barricade” with chairs in front of the entrance and when they tried to cross it, a fight broke out and López was injured. The senator’s lawyer reported a “hematoma in the upper area of ​​the right ankle measuring 5 x 3 cm” and noted internal pain in her right arm. With this medical certificate, López formalized the charges against the agents involved in court.

However, this incident did not stop the redistribution of offices belonging to senators who fulfilled their mandate. The fight with López was precisely due to the fact that the Presidium of the Chamber had decided to control the positions vacated and not to allow their transfer between the parties. This measure was adopted in Decree 488/25. She didn’t come alone, because this Wednesday the Senate leader signed another order. Decree 607/25, which stated: “It becomes necessary to coordinate the return of all offices, rooms and furniture assigned to senators whose terms of office are ending.” With this justification, Villarruel took control of 53 offices and redistributed them. So far she has distributed only 43 and, as the list shows, the vice president has decided to send an important part of the 20 libertarian senators out of the palace and, in several cases, to give them offices near important opposition leaders. Only the leader of the Libertarian caucus, Patricia Bullrich, escaped alienation and has an office in the Senate and another in the annex. But others were not as lucky, as in the case of María Emilia Orozco and Gonzalo Guzmán Coraita from Salta, Romina Almeida and Joaquín Benegas Lynch from Entre Ríos, Nadia Márquez from Neuquén, Agustin Coto from Tierra del Fuego, Juan Carlos Pagotto from Rioja, who are very close to the head of the lower house, Martín Menem. The Libertarian Caucus will have an office in the palace, perhaps as compensation. On the contrary: the former governor of Santiago del Estero, Gerardo Zamora, who does not belong to the Peronist bloc and founded his monobloc, has his office on the ground floor of the upper house.