Myriam Bregman: ‘We denounced Espert’s ties to drug-trafficking in 2021’

Myriam Bregman is a candidate for national deputy for the left-wing Frente de Izquierda de los Trabajadores (FIT) in the upcoming October 26 midterm elections.

In an interview, she referred to allegations facing lawmaker and La Libertad Avanza (LLA) candidate José Luis Espert. Last week, documents from the United States surfaced linking him to a US$200,000 payment from Federico Andrés 'Fred' Machado, who has been accused of involvement in drug-trafficking.

Bregman recalled that her party had already denounced Espert for the same alleged links back in 2021, complaining that “no-one supported us.”

In an exclusive interview with Noticias Argentinas, in the midst of the election campaign, 'La Rusa' – as she is known by friends and supporters – spoke about the national government, Peronism, feminism as a movement of struggle and the importance of the FIT maintaining its seats in Congress and gaining more.

The FIT were the first to denounce Espert. Do you think you were ignored at the time and now the rest of the political forces won’t acknowledge it?

Nicolás del Caño was the first to say it, and in a very high-profile setting – the 2021 [televised] debate for deputies, in which both José Luis Espert and Nicolás were running as candidates in Buenos Aires Province. The videos exist and anyone can watch them.

In that very visible space, he said Espert's ties to drug-trafficking needed to be investigated. When Espert became chair of the [Lower House] Budget and Finance Committee, we challenged him on the very same day. We said he couldn’t take office – just hours before he did – because he wasn’t fit to be in that role, especially not to be in charge of the budget. We submitted a formal objection, and no-one backed us.

And I’ll add something else: after Nicolás made that allegation, Espert began attacking us with extreme hostility, on social media and in the press. When the government he’s now part of came into power, he started calling for us to be either “jailed or shot.” On a television channel, when asked what he meant by “shot,” he replied “real bullets.” That is, this is someone who publicly called for us to be gunned down – and we’ve filed a criminal complaint over it.

What happened with that complaint?

Thanks to the pace of the justice system and with the protection of Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita – who refused to press charges and merely advised Espert to “not do it again” – the case is still ongoing, thanks only to the efforts of our lawyers at the Centro de Profesionales por los Derechos Humanos (CeProDH). But it has been very difficult to confront this individual. At that time, we were left quite isolated.

Do you think there’s a specific animosity on his part towards you?

He’s always gone out of his way to demean me as a woman. He gave me a nickname, borrowed from the United States, "snowflake" – suggesting that I’m part of the so-called "woke" culture, overly sensitive and easily offended. In other words, he tried to discredit me in a deeply condescending way. As a result, that nickname stuck with me on social media to this day, and any time someone wants to belittle me, they use it.

But that won’t change what I do. I’m a human rights lawyer; I’ve personally confronted people like [dictatorship repressors] Jorge ‘Tigre’ Acosta and Alfredo Astiz, and I’ve been fighting for justice for Jorge Julio López since the day he disappeared at the hands of gangs linked to the Buenos Aires Province Police ... so you can imagine I’m not going to be silenced by something like that.

Still, I refuse to normalise this kind of violent, sexist behaviour–— because it’s what they do to all women. If we speak up, they say it’s because we’re “too sensitive.” If we denounce the situation of pensioners, we’re “too emotional.”

Well, I’d rather be sensitive to injustice and the suffering of others than be a nefarious character like Espert. Despite everything, we keep moving forward, and I think it’s now clear we were right in that fight – as in many others that start off as minority struggles.

You’ve often been the only political force to raise certain issues, and later, once they become public, others join in.

Let me tell you something. The other day at a demonstration, one of the women who had been accused of targeting Espert’s house – and was imprisoned for it – came up to me and gave me a hug. She’s a Peronist, of course, and her embrace felt sincere and warm. She told me, “When it came time to denounce Espert and support those of us being persecuted, you were there.” And I really value that, because the same isn’t always true the other way around.

The Left rarely receives that same support when we raise issues – usually alone – that later come to the surface in society. That matters, especially for women, because every struggle we’ve fought started as a minority one, even though we are the majority. But that’s never stopped us fighting: for the right to vote, against gender violence, for legal abortion so that no-one dies from unsafe procedures.

When our Madres and Abuelas started protesting in the Plaza, they were just 12 women. And they stood up in the darkest of times. That’s always going to be our example: speaking up and bearing witness in hard times. There are plenty of other political forces for those looking for convenience.

The Coherencia caucus, formed by former libertarians, and Unión por la Patria have both formally requested Espert’s expulsion. You haven’t joined them, but you have called for his removal from his role and for an investigation to be opened.

Exactly. The current motion is based on “moral incapacity,” without presenting any evidence beyond what’s appeared in the media. We believe this needs to be done seriously. It can’t be just another headline today that fades away tomorrow.

Espert must be removed from the committee – as we already demanded on January 8, 2024. Moreover, I think he should immediately take a leave of absence from the Chamber of Deputies.

In the meantime, a proper investigation must be carried out and decisions made based on the evidence that emerges. This Chamber should not be a place of cover-up – it should be the place where the truth about José Luis Espert is exposed. He shouldn’t be allowed to play the victim and claim he was “kicked out without a chance to defend himself.”

What should be done with the existing evidence linking Espert to Antonio ‘Fred’ Machado?

The evidence against Espert must be made public. The Chamber of Deputies must request information from the United States, from the Judiciary – from whoever is necessary – and from there make a decision, which I suspect will be serious. But there’s a step they seem to be skipping, and if we skip it, we might end up helping Espert. That’s certainly not something I want.

Today, I heard Patricia Bullrich say that Espert should be investigated…

She should – she’s the one with the power to investigate drug-trafficking. But she’s spent all this time going after social protest instead. She made a choice in terms of her security policy – a clear one – and she decided who the enemies were, just like she did during [ex-president] Mauricio Macri’s administration.

In the presidential debate I had with her, I reminded her that the biggest drug bust she had to show for herself was one where they confiscated 25 joints – meanwhile, Santiago Maldonado and Rafael Nahuel were disappeared or killed and dozens of protests were violently repressed. That shows exactly what she thinks the State should be targeting – social protest. For everything else, Bullrich is incredibly lenient, and just tries to stir up scandal without substance.

Is there any legal mechanism to strip Espert of his candidacy mid-scandal?

I think we need a groundswell of public rejection and to start taking the candidate lists seriously. If drug-trafficking has grown in our country, it’s because a welcoming legal framework has been created for it. Not just because the security forces don’t go after it, but because it’s been given every opportunity to launder money.

Take the so-called “Ley de Blanqueo: passed during Javier Milei’s government – it was approved unanimously in the Senate. Unanimity means all the parties, including those now loudly criticising Espert.

The Frente de Izquierda was the only political force that didn’t vote for it. So I’d prefer if these discussions were less theatrical in the literal sense – and far more serious. Because in the barrios, drug-trafficking is destroying lives, while a few figures living in Nordelta get rich and others are left to deal with the consequences.