Before an audio tape of President Javier Milei’s sister was recently leaked to the news media, most Argentines had never heard her voice.
Karina Milei, perhaps the second most powerful person in Argentina, had largely kept silent, pulling strings from behind the scenes while her boisterous brother commanded the stage.
But now Argentina’s mysterious first sister, who quietly helped fuel her brother’s rise from TV pundit to president and a leader of the world’s populist right, has become a focal point for a public test of his government and a lightning rod for corruption accusations leveled against it.
While the tape attributed to her was innocuous, rallying party members and telling them to stay united, a separate tape attributed to a different government official suggested she was profiting from a bribery scheme.
And all of this has emerged just as she was organizing Milei’s party’s campaign for a crucial midterm vote this fall — a key test of her brother’s transformative plans for the country.
But just as he has done since they were children, Mr. Milei, 54, has stood by his sister, denying the accusations, and there are no signs that her power or influence have weakened.
A political newcomer with a background as an executive at a tire company and other family businesses, Ms. Milei meticulously managed her brother’s agenda, policed his inner circle and handled his finances when he ran for president two years ago.
Now, as the secretary of the presidency and leader of Mr. Milei’s party, she has shaped her brother’s political machinery, negotiating alliances with other politicians and choosing candidates.
“She is the boss,” Mr. Milei has often said of his sister. “I am just a communicator.”
Ms. Milei declined to be interviewed for this article and did not respond to a list of questions. She almost never speaks to the news media and largely shuns public appearances, though she did participate in a canine contest on TV with her dog, Aaron.
In recent weeks, Ms. Milei, 52, has dominated the front pages, and her name has been chanted at street protests. The audio leak of her making seemingly harmless statements prompted a gag order by judges, who banned further media dissemination of the tapes.
Because Ms. Milei is such an enigma, much speculation has swirled around her, including rumors that she communicates with animals and practices divination.
What is not open to speculation is her bond with her brother. More than a dozen politicians and activists who have worked with the siblings — several of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution — described in interviews an inextricable relationship linking Ms. Milei to her brother, and to political power in Argentina.
To “have a relationship with Javier Milei you must have a relationship with Karina,” said Iñaki Gutiérrez, a young activist close to Mr. Milei.
Some said Ms. Milei was a tireless worker, while others called her a diligent purger of dissenting voices, but they all agreed on her uncompromising, ironclad fealty to her brother. “Loyalty is not an option, it is a condition,” Ms. Milei wrote in a rare post on X.
The devotion is mutual. Mr. Milei has called his sister “the most marvelous being that exists in the universe,” and praised her “purity” and high morals. Mr. Milei, who often summons “heavenly forces” to accompany him, has compared his sister with the prophet Moses, and featured her, wearing angel wings, in a documentary.
The bond between the siblings was sealed early. They grew up in a middle-class neighborhood in Buenos Aires with a father who, Mr. Milei has told many friends, used to beat him as his mother stood by. The only person who tried to protect him, Mr. Milei has said, was Karina.
As they became adults and remained unmarried and surrounded by dogs, people close to them said that Ms. Milei continued her role as Mr. Milei’s gatekeeper.
Carlos Kikuchi, a senator in the Buenos Aires Province and a political strategist who worked closely with Ms. Milei, said that she was “the only person Javier fully trusts,” and that she “controls 100 percent of his presidential agenda.”
Before they parted ways over what Mr. Kikuchi said were political differences, he and Ms. Milei helped turn her brother’s televised tirades into a movement that capitalized on many voters’ frustrations with the political establishment to be elected the country’s leader in 2023.
During the campaign, Ms. Milei managed her brother’s bank account, including cashing his paychecks and paying his utility bills, Mr. Kikuchi said. Her control was so granular, said Mila Zurbriggen, a former leader of the youth wing of Mr. Milei’s party, that she would personally ensure Mr. Milei found Monster energy drinks whenever he traveled for rallies.
Mr. Milei’s answer to many requests is “discuss it with Kari,” according to people who have made the requests.
They included Juan Carlos Pallarols, a well-known Argentine silversmith, who said that before Mr. Milei was elected, he invited him to dinner and was told to be in touch with his sister, who asked for $2,000 and sent a bank account number. Mr. Milei confirmed in a 2023 interview with Bloomberg that he charged for meetings. (Mr. Pallarols said he declined to pay.)
A cryptocurrency scandal involving Mr. Milei and an American consultant has led to accusations that Ms. Milei took payments for access to her brother even after he became president.
The consultant, Hayden Davis, said in text messages obtained by The New York Times that “I send $$ to his sister and he signs whatever I say.”
The messages are now part of a lawsuit filed in July in federal court in Manhattan by a man claiming to be a victim of the scandal, which has seen investors bilked out of $250 million. Guillermo Francos, Mr. Milei’s chief of cabinet, said Ms. Milei did not receive any payments and Mr. Milei denied receiving money.
In a more recent controversy, a recording leaked to the Argentine news media and attributed to a government official claimed that Ms. Milei profited from a bribery scheme involving a pharmaceutical company.
The audio has not been verified, and Mr. Milei told a reporter recently that the official had lied.
In other leaked tapes, which a government spokesman said were illegal recordings of Ms. Milei in a government building, she is heard making her case for unity.
“The boss in the eye of the storm,” said a headline on Perfil, an Argentine news website.
Women at the sides of Argentina’s presidents have taken prominent roles before, most famously Eva Perón, who shaped the image, presidency and legacy of her husband, Juan Perón, achieving for many semi-divinity status as a champion for women and the poor.
Ms. Milei is different. Rather than articulate policy, she focuses on Mr. Milei’s political operation because her brother — an economist fixated on economics — “gets bored” by it, said Agustín Spaccesi, a lawmaker in the city of Córdoba.
Some of Ms. Milei’s detractors said hostility from Ms. Milei led to her ousting them from the president’s political movement.
“Karina was the one who kicked them out,” said Ivan Dubois, a politician and a member of Mr. Milei’s party.
Some criticized the expulsions as abrupt or inexplicable. Perhaps the lack of clarity led some to attack Ms. Milei on supernatural grounds.
“Maybe I came out bad in a session where she invoked spirits,” said Carlos Maslatón, an economist and former ally of Mr. Milei who said he had been sidelined.
Juan Grabois, an opposition politician, said in an interview broadcast on YouTube that Ms. Milei “applies esoteric mechanisms against her enemies.”
Though none of her critics have offered any evidence, in a country where esotericism is deeply woven into the cultural fabric, the rumors have become part of the public conversation about Ms. Milei. La Nación, one of Argentina’s largest newspapers, wrote that Ms. Milei “delved into the world of tarot to help her brother communicate with Conan,” his dead dog.
Some allies said accusations of witchcraft have long been used to attack women.
“Karina is a spiritual woman, nothing more,” Lilia Lemoine, a lawmaker and close ally of the Mileis told Cenital, another Argentine news website. “Because she is a woman and has these sensitivities, she has been called a witch, which has been happening since the Inquisition.”
Amid the swirl of scandal and gossip, Ms. Milei is concentrating on next month’s crucial election. Mr. Milei is seeking to win greater congressional support for his plan to curb inflation and make drastic spending cuts.
And “just like I did in every single phase of his life,” she said in a rare speech, “I will keep standing by his side.”
Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in Rome.
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