BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (CN) - Jose Luis Espert announced his withdrawal Sunday from the upcoming midterm elections in Argentina amid an escalating corruption scandal connected to a high-profile drug trafficking case currently under review in a Texas court.
"I'm taking a step aside, for Argentina," Espert wrote on X, following days of speculation and mounting pressure over the future of his candidacy representing President Javier Milei's ultraconservative party.
The sitting member of Argentina's lower house was caught up in a corruption investigation linked to U.S. authorities just weeks before the Oct. 26 midterms. A local news outlet recently reported that Espert received $200,000 from Federico Andres "Fred" Machado, an Argentine businessman facing an extradition request from the U.S.
Machado is implicated in a case in which a woman was sentenced to 16 years in prison for smuggling cocaine aboard aircraft she managed for cartel-connected clients, as well as for orchestrating a $550 million Ponzi scheme involving the sale of up to 100 fictitious airplanes.
According to the U.S. indictment, Machado and his companies acquired aircraft through false registrations and shell corporations, exporting them to several Latin American countries - including Colombia, Venezuela, and Guatemala - to facilitate cocaine shipments into the United States. The illicit proceeds were purportedly laundered through fake companies engaged in fraudulent financial operations.
Machado has been under house arrest in a southern province of Argentina since early 2021, while the Argentine Supreme Court prepares to rule on the U.S. extradition request.
Initially, Espert denied ever receiving money from Machado. However, as wire transfers surfaced in a story published by La Nacion, a local newspaper, confirming payments from the businessman, Espert gradually modified his account. By the weekend, he admitted to receiving payments for consultancy work from a Guatemalan mining company linked to Machado, claiming he was unaware of the source of the funds.
The connection between Espert and Machado dates back to the 2019 presidential campaign, when Espert ran before Milei entered the political scene in 2021. At the time, Espert was emerging as a controversial far-right voice opposing the center-left incumbent, Alberto Fernandez.
During that campaign, local media reported that Machado provided logistical support, including roughly 35 private flights and vehicles from his personal fleet for Espert's campaign travel. One of these flights, to Viedma, was publicly acknowledged by Espert. However, none of this support was reported in the official campaign finance statements.
"I don't doubt his [Espert's] honorability," Milei said in a Sunday interview. "He has decided to step down on his own. I didn't push him out, and I wouldn't have. He's the victim of a political operation." Milei suggested that progressives orchestrated the operation as retaliation for the recent imprisonment of former President Cristina Kirchner.
During his six years in politics, Espert advocated for economic liberalism, emphasizing free markets, reduced state intervention and fiscal austerity. He promoted cutting public spending, lowering taxes and reducing government bureaucracy as ways to stimulate investment and economic growth.
He was also a controversial critic of identity politics and progressive policies, known for his hardline stance on crime and his blunt catchphrase, "prison or bullet."
After his resignation, local lawmakers argued that Espert's resignation does not justify reprinting the province's ballots, arguing that legal deadlines passed in early September and that single ballots have already been printed with the valid candidates still running for La Libertad Avanza. Reprinting now would be "wasteful" and "unnecessary," they said.
Lawmakers emphasized that if the electoral court orders a reprint, the costs should be borne by Milei's party, not taxpayers.
La Libertad Avanza has not yet formally requested Espert's removal from the ballot, but Milei said during his Sunday interview that they expect to change the leading candidate to Diego Santilli, who originally stood third in the ballot.
Courthouse News reporter Lucia Cholakian Herrera is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Source: Courthouse News Service
