Milei's dogs and God: Juan Luis González exposes the President's mystical connection in "The Forces of Heaven."

You might think that the journalist who has spent the most time investigating the President , author of an unauthorized best-selling biography ( The Madman ), would take certain precautions or be nervous about having interfered with the secrecy of power. However, Juan Luis González , 32 years old, beige T-shirt, neat beard, calmly sips his coffee and takes a moment to talk to Clarín about The Forces of Heaven (Planeta), his most recent book , is the second he dedicates to Javier Milei. Here he focuses on one of his less-discussed aspects, which he says he considers central to understanding the figure of the first libertarian president in history: esotericism .

“It was at eleven that a mystical episode first occurred to him, when his father was beating him and a ray of light fell on his sister. A very powerful image ,” he comments. From here, he analyzes personality traits such as loneliness (“he structured it so as not to connect with human beings, and this dehumanization , this lack of empathy that he has, empowers him as president,” he notes), close figures in his entourage, such as Karina Milei (in the book, he details her esoteric resume), his dogs (a key factor that, as he documents, connects him to God and the future), and he theorizes about the future of a leader, as he describes, permeated by mysticism and messianism : “I think this book would be useful to Mauricio Macri, who has been trying to negotiate with Milei for a year and a half. Someone chosen by God doesn't negotiate ,” he concludes.

González, who speaks with the rapid-fire pace of someone who has long been overwhelmed by the pace of newsrooms, advises his colleagues trying to portray this phenomenon to steer clear of prejudices , read widely, and not be blinded solely by the characters. Because, as he explains, there's much more to the story. For him, this is just the tip of an iceberg that allowed him to "see how deeply magical thinking is present in society."

–In the book, you say that your first encounter with Milei was at a La Libertad Avanza march in 2021. What did you discover there?

–That was the first march in the capital, but I'd already known Milei since 2018, when Edi Zunino, may he rest in peace, and Alejandra Dahia, now the editor of Revista Noticias, came up with the idea of doing a cover with Milei. It's the first time she's been on the cover of a national media outlet. This is mid-2018. Milei was coming off her first viral video, which many people don't remember, but it was "Vaca Mala," with Andy Kusnetzoff. Three weeks after that, we did that cover, which is impressive. You see it and it's so topical! She also talks about how her relationship with journalism changed. The title was "Milei Effect: Argentina Friki." And the caption: "They're extravagant and fascinate a country that also lives on the brink. They border on psychological pathology. But they're successful and powerful. A hilarious report on the economist, the new star." I didn't write the article, but we all went down to see the photo shoot by Juan Ferrari, a great photographer, and it's hilarious. Milei with a pipe hitting the camera. It's almost like having sex with a mannequin. Ready for anything except for someone touching his hair. He came to talks I gave with my students when I was teaching at the Tertiary Profile Institute. When La Libertad Avanza started, I had a connection with him. We spoke at those marches. Afterwards, I was doing a profile of Carlos Maslatón for Anfibia Magazine. I followed him for five months. During that tour, I fell in love with the march. That's when I broke with my stereotypes.

Writer Juan Luis González, author of "The Forces of Heaven." Photo: Santiago Garcia Díaz.

I was expecting to find something like a Macri march, wealthy women with their maids asking for dollars to travel to Miami. I found young, lower-middle-class kids, all working. I saw them getting off buses and subways. You'd talk to them, and the problem was they couldn't make ends meet. Clearly, there was an urgency. That impressed me a lot. There's a buzz, a new social vote. There was also something playful about it: it was fun. I'd just covered six years of Peronism and the difference between a minister who would tape you off-screen and this being an amusement park. Everyone had a joke, told you something crazy. There were science fiction characters, there was the elf, Lilia Lemoine, Maslatón himself. I was trapped there.

–And at what point did you say, “I have material here for The Madman ,” your first book?

–I took the idea to Planeta in September 2022, when Milei was already a deputy. Two or three things had happened where I said: something's going on here. When Fontevecchia interviewed him with Grabois and he said: "It's okay to sell organs." The following month, he endorsed a children's market. Three or four very harsh phrases I'd never heard before, and the guy didn't take a hit. We had published the plagiarism thing and nothing happened either. It was cinematic. The publisher had some doubts anyway. They thought it wouldn't get more than 15 percent of the vote. That's why the original idea was to do something more phenomenological, like Pablo Stefanoni's, but Argentine. Conan appears in the middle. I found it very striking. I took it to him with the idea that he was going to make it to the runoff, but I thought he was going to lose it because of his instability. For example, my latest book includes a Proyección survey from June of last year where 45% were in favor of the government, but when asked: Which candidate would you leave your children with? Only 12% voted for him. Instability became an asset. Some see him as a guy who speaks his mind, is histrionic, genuine, uncoached, and doesn't follow the caste.

–In The Forces of Heaven you address Milei's esotericism, something that seems central to you and you say that it strikes you that it is often not so problematic.

–The previous book begins with Conan, but at the time, I didn't give it the importance it deserved either. In my defense, the Milei of 2021 presented himself as a progressive liberal, a leftist if you will. He said the IMF debt should be disavowed, he had a theory on marriage that coincided with the queerest core of the planet. He talked about orgies; he was disruptive. Later, he transformed into a more classic liberal; I came to stir up trouble. In the final months of the 2023 campaign, not coincidentally because the supposed prophecy God had given him was beginning to be fulfilled, and already in government, the liberal façade disappeared and the true Milei appeared, who was absolutely theological. His discourse is absolutely theological; he speaks of light and darkness and a new era in Argentina. I knew Milei was someone who believed God spoke to him, that they had back-and-forth dialogues through the dead dog. I didn't believe that, while governing, he would compare moments of his administration with the Torah or the Holy Scriptures. At the same time, this book is not an essay, it documents it with evidence.

Writer Juan Luis González, author of "The Forces of Heaven." Photo: Santiago Garcia Díaz.

–How do you see this topic usually being addressed?

There's the ruling party, which insists through advertising or threats, like with Perfil, saying, "You publish this and we'll go to war against you," regarding our cover of the dogs. Then, friendly communicators, saying it's a private matter that has no bearing on anything, downplay it. Others just caricature it, making jokes or jingles. It's not bad, but there's something much deeper going on here: the President of the Nation inhabits a realm of reality that isn't the same as the rest of the people. That speaks to the extent that mysticism dictates it. I was surprised the other day when Cristina described the government as an "esoteric right." She was the first major leader I'd heard giving the issue the importance it deserves.

The President of the Nation lives in a realm of reality that is not the same as that of the rest of the people.

–Reading your book, it's clear that Milei is convinced of his ideas and these esoteric revelations. What happens when the state itself undermines his mission? What potential resistance do you observe?

–There are several central ideas there. Milei is saying that politics and religion don't go their separate ways. He's said two hundred times that he doesn't believe in coincidences. He believes God told him in 2020 that he'll be president in 2023. In 2020, Milei was doing comedy routines with Yayo on Sundays, and his sister was competing on Guido Kaczka's show. And that's true. Imagine the doubts Milei might have if his plan gets complicated in Congress and he has to veto it. Just as he says, his plan is that of Moses. He separates himself from all the leaders we've had in Argentina, I think from the West, because he puts theology in a very clear place. Until that's understood, I don't think Milei will be fully understood. I think this book would be useful to Mauricio Macri, who has been trying to negotiate with Milei for a year and a half. Someone chosen by God doesn't negotiate. Milton, one of the dogs, according to Milei, and according to the book, advises him about the future. Imagine how far his conviction goes.

–Returning to the above, one might ask: what would happen if the republic itself is an obstacle to its mission?

–Democracy has already changed. The Argentine democracy we have today is not the same as it was a year and a half ago, but not in a theoretical-academic sense. Two years ago, Milei governed without a budget, went into debt with the IMF by decree, and appointed a Supreme Court justice by decree. He did something that had never been done in the history of Argentina: he said he wasn't coming to govern for everyone. He said, "I'm coming to govern for good Argentines." He invites hatred, verbatim, which is also a crime. He ran a pyramid scheme. Where is authoritarianism going? We're seeing it. Its guiding light is Bukele or Viktor Orbán. There's no need to theorize. This is already happening. Milei beat biology: Conan dies, and he convinces himself he's not dying because he clones him and, at the same time, speaks to him from beyond the grave. If not even biology and death could stop him, imagine if an opposition bloc in Congress, a law, a march will be able to stop him. That's where I start to get scared. That's the question. I don't know where Argentina is going. I do wonder how compatible theology is with democracy, or Conan with institutions.

–At one point you say that when Javier hesitates, Karina steps forward, takes control. What is the importance of Karina Milei?

–He's the most important person in the government when it comes to decision-making, even more so than Javier. History shows us that when there's a difference of opinion, the balance tips in Karina's favor. It happened with Victoria Villaruel, with Ramiro Marra, and it will happen with Santiago Caputo, I have no doubt. It's impossible to understand her role without mysticism. In 2018, Karina wasn't El Jefe, she was Coqui. The empowerment, even over him, occurs during and after the mystical episode. The celestial bureaucracy of that communication isn't Javier speaking directly to God, but Karina. The book features Karina's esoteric resume, where she documents herself as an angelic channeler. In the book, I describe some scenes from meetings where Milei expresses this idea that she is Moses, which, again, she has said because until now the only person who had spoken to God had been Moses. Now it's Karina. She has said: she's almost not human, she's my guardian angel. It's impossible to understand her without mysticism.

Democracy has already changed. The Argentine democracy we have today is not the same as it was a year and a half ago.

–You spoke with very close sources whose relationship with Milei didn't end well. What was your criterion for determining whether they were providing you with reliable information or, rather, speaking out of resentment?

“I started hearing about Milei's mysticism in 2022 from others. Mariano Fernández authorized me to show the chats—he's shown me dozens—where Milei talks about how the dogs advise him. He has a particularity that makes it easy to tell they're his chats because he writes in capital letters on WhatsApp. I listened to audio recordings of Karina in esoteric mode. From then on, I understood I had evidence that everything was real. I paid more attention to the testimonies that weren't tainted by politics, like that of a professional who cared for his cloned dogs or Gustavo, the first sorcerer who approached him. I always insist that everything in this book is just the tip of the iceberg. Nothing is more interesting to the government than hiding this.”

–How do you see journalism today?

–I'm going to start with something positive that may sound somewhat unbelievable, but having one of the greatest exponents of the new right declare journalism his main enemy should be a source of pride for journalists. They bark, Sancho. We must be doing something right if it's so annoying. On the other hand, it's sad and worrying, not because we're supermen, but because behind it lies a very authoritarian attempt to pursue a single truth, to silence dissent. Then it pains one to see how colleagues lend themselves to this circus, whether to minimize the government's authoritarian measures or to put a face to these farcical scripted interviews. It's terrible because it hurts twice as much; you feel bastardized in your own profession, which you love so much. There's an accompaniment from a certain part of journalism that is reprehensible and sad. History will judge them because nothing lasts forever, and some are very exposed. I try to focus on the positive. There are great investigative works on Milei (Crisis Magazine, Anfibia, Victoria De Masi's book, to name a few, or tweeters like Javier Smaldone or Antiponzista).

Writer Juan Luis González, author of "The Forces of Heaven." Photo: Santiago Garcia Díaz.

–In a recent article, you mentioned that Milei also fit into a certain revival of Catholicism, as if the world is so deteriorated that people are looking for a savior.

–That was one of the book's great surprises: the extent to which magical thinking pervades Argentina. The soccer cabals, the jinxes. At the World Cup, we said: I choose to believe. That also pervades society and politics. The idea of sacrifice, deeply religious, is central to Milei's narrative. The day Milei takes office, something happens that hasn't happened anywhere else, which is the great novelty she brings, which is the chainsaw. People spontaneously chanted, "There's no money." Durán Barba said: "I've never seen a candidate win who promises greater suffering to the people." The current state of the world is making this idea grow. Milei represents a new stage in politics in which delirium is just another commodity. These ideas already existed. For fifteen years, we've been hearing that a GDP was stolen. It wasn't metaphorical. They literally said: there are $50 billion underground. Further down the line, we're heading for 17,000% inflation. The Earth is flat. COVID doesn't exist. Patricia Bullrich was going to enter the Central Bank to see all the dollars. I relate this, with due respect, to what happened with Cositorto and Generation Zoe. Everything is so messed up that the idea of a magical, immediate, easy, intelligible salvation works, and what we're seeing in the background is the rise of individualism. The collective has broken down so much that everything has become individual, and economic salvation is personal, but so has the very concept of reality. If I don't see that the Earth is round, then it's flat. If I don't see COVID, it doesn't exist. If I see the dog talking to me from beyond the grave, the dog is talking to me. If the president has five dogs, he has five dogs.

–That's what spokesman Manuel Adorni said. His exact words.

–For me, that's the phrase that defines the government at this historic moment. Truth no longer exists; reality is what it says, in this case, the Messiah. This idea of a crisis of reason is deepened by the cell phone as a work tool, the compartmentalization of reality: Twitter shows me the things I want to see; the algorithmization of life also allows you to construct your own reality. Add in the crisis of religions, major political parties, unions, and community. That's why it's no coincidence that the madman is king. He puts a face to this phenomenon of an unstable leader who connects with an unstable country.

Juan Luis González basic

Born in Buenos Aires in 1992, he is a political journalist. He is deputy editor of Politics at Noticias magazine, a contributor to Anfibia, and a professor at the Perfil journalism school.

He studies history at the University of Buenos Aires. He won an Adepa (Argentine Association of Journalistic Entities) award for an interview with Alberto "La Liebre" Gómez, the Pinamar police commissioner who cleared the area for the assassination of José Luis Cabezas.

Writer Juan Luis González, author of "The Forces of Heaven." Photo: Santiago Garcia Díaz.

He has been investigating the new right since early 2021. El Loco , his first book, was awarded by FOPEA (Argentine Journalism Forum) as the best investigative book of 2023. It was later adapted into a podcast by El País (Spain) and Anfibia, under the name “Sin control, el universo de Javier Milei”.