Buenos Aires Herald 
Lourdes Arrieta jumped before they could push her. The renegade libertarian deputy announced on Tuesday that she was leaving ruling coalition La Libertad Avanza (LLA) to form a new congressional bloc, formed of just her. She announced it minutes before a LLA meeting in which they were going to discuss expelling her from the bloc, something most of its members reportedly agreed on.
“I decided to create my own bloc because I can’t be part of a group that doesn’t respect me or the president’s agenda,” Arrieta told the press outside Congress on Tuesday evening. “I don’t support those who are really part of this — something as sensitive as crimes against humanity — trying to cover it up.”
The bloc’s name is Fuerzas del Cielo-Espacio Liberal (Forces of Heaven-Liberal Space) and will go by the initials FE, alluding to her evangelical faith. So far, Arrieta is the only member.
“I will continue to defend my Judeo-Christian and liberal values, accompanying President Javier Gerardo Milei through my work as a lawmaker,” she said in a letter to Menem. In it, she also requested an office in the Congress building in addition to the one she has in the Congress annex, as well as additional staff, and to remain in the Lower House commissions she is currently part of.
Arrieta has been in the eye of the storm for weeks within her now former bloc in Congress after claiming she was tricked by her fellow deputies into visiting dictatorship-era criminals in Ezeiza prison back in July. She even filed a complaint with the judiciary for “conspiracy” and “coercion” against the other LLA deputies involved in the visit.
On August 21, Arrieta screamed at her colleagues during a LLA meeting in the Lower House, ultimately filing a gender-based violence complaint against deputy Nicolás Mayoraz. The tension between her and LLA reached breaking point over the weekend, when she posted a series of screenshots, allegedly of group chats among LLA deputies. They appear to show that before the prison visit, there were other meetings and talks between deputies, lawyers and judges regarding bills to drop charges against those being investigated for murder, torture and other crimes during the dictatorship. She also posted the alleged draft bills themselves.
“The mistreatment, isolation, the thoughtlessness [I suffered] are evident. They left me alone,” Arrieta said on Tuesday. “They are not investigating the ones they have to investigate,” she added, naming deputy Beltrán Benedit — who, according to the screenshots, organized the prison visit — and other lawmakers who went with him to Ezeiza jail, as well as others she claims were part of the talks.
She made her decision official with a letter to Lower House President and LLA member Martín Menem, letting him know of the bloc change. Arrieta has said Menem knew of the prison visit and was responsible for it. However, he has insisted that he was not aware of the visit until after it happened and never authorized it.
Arrieta’s move leaves LLA with just 37 deputies, the same number as their main ally, right-wing PRO.
At the start of President Javier Milei’s presidency, LLA had 41 deputies, but three lawmakers left in April over internal differences. However, much like those three deputies, Arrieta will continue to support the ruling coalition in Congress.
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