Martina Jaureguy 
President Javier Milei and Presidency Secretary Karina Milei’s relationship with Vice President Victoria Villarruel seems to be growing tense. Villarruel was absent from a major military event on Friday and, while her inner circle claims she didn’t receive an invitation, the Defense Ministry said they were expecting her.
Together with her absence from the signing of Milei’s key May Pact and controversial comments about France, her empty seat has been interpreted as a sign of cooling relations between the vice and the president, as well as his sister.
Villarruel’s absence came as a surprise, given not only her role in the government, but her close ties with the military. “She would have loved to go and would have been the first there, but she doesn’t go where she hasn’t been invited,” a source close to Villarruel told the Herald.
Presidential spokesman Manuel Adorni said on Monday that President Milei and his vice had a “fantastic” relationship. “The vice president being absent from an event doesn’t imply that the relationship changes,” he said in his morning press conference. He dismissed reports that the pair’s relationship was cooling as “speculation.”
Every year, the armed forces hold a “camaraderie dinner” at the military Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters. The president — who is commander-in-chief of the armed forces — and other political leaders are invited, along with members of the military and their families. At the event, the president is expected to make announcements regarding the military, and promote officers.
This year, however, there was no dinner. Milei gave a speech and handed sabers to the newly-promoted officers. Later, there was a cocktail party, to which only officers and their families were invited.
Adorni said that the invitations were the Defense Ministry’s responsibility. However, according to the source close to Villarruel, the Defense Ministry organized the event itself but the president’s team, including a military security detail under the scope of the General Presidency Secretariat, decides who can attend. In line with military protocol, attendees must have a formal invitation — which the vice president did not receive.
A Defense Ministry source said they were expecting Villarruel, and had even assigned credentials to her photographer and social media manager, but she called half an hour before the event started to let them know she would not attend because she had another engagement. The source close to the vice president said she had no other commitments that night.
“The issue wasn’t with the Defense Ministry. The Presidency General Secretariat had to send out the invitation, and didn’t do so,” the source said, adding that Villarruel and her team were planning to go but she ultimately decided against attending “to prevent institutional problems.”
He also mentioned that Villarruel and Karina Milei, who is also the president’s sister, have a strictly “institutional relationship” and that lately, they haven’t needed to speak directly, although the secretariat communicates with the Senate, which the vice president leads.
Karina and Villarruel have reportedly had a strained relationship since Javier Milei came to power. The president has also appeared to show Villarruel the cold shoulder on several occasions. In July, she posted on social media to defend the Argentine men’s football team for singing racist chants, calling the French “colonizers.” This sparked diplomatic tension with France days before Milei’s trip to attend the Olympics opening ceremony in Paris and meet French President Emmanuel Macron.
“It wasn’t an appropriate tweet,” Milei said at the time. “You can’t create an institutional mess out of a sports issue. But it’s fixed now. Kari fixed it,” he said, referring to an emergency meeting his sister Karina had with the French ambassador to apologize.
After missing the military event, Villarruel also dropped out of a trip to Mendoza on Saturday. She was scheduled to meet local authorities and participate in a homage to General José de San Martín on the anniversary of his death. In an X post, she explained she fainted and airport staff advised her not to fly. The rest of her team did travel, and attended the event.
Villarruel had already missed the signing of Milei’s May Pact,on July 8 in Tucumán, claiming she had the flu. However, the next day she attended a military parade in Buenos Aires for Argentina’s Independence Day, where she and Milei paraded through the streets in a tank.
The president and vice president last appeared together in public at the opening ceremony of the La Rural exhibition in Palermo at the end of July. They greeted each other but did not sit together.
