LLA lawmaker tainted by narco allegations. Who is Lorena Villaverde?

Argentine ruling party La Libertad Avanza (LLA) is facing a new scandal after one of their recently elected senators has been stopped from taking her seat over a 24-year-old drug-trafficking case. National deputy for Río Negro province Lorena Villaverde presented her resignation from her current post in order to become a senator on December 10, after being elected back in October. But her future is now unclear, as the upper house blocked her from taking her seat over the allegations. This is the second LLA lawmaker tainted with accusations of ties to the drug trade this year. Shortly before the October midterms, deputy candidate José Luis Espert dropped out of the race due to links with Federico “Fred” Machado, an Argentine businessman who is being investigated for drug trafficking in the U.S. The complaint against Villaverde hinges on a case from 2002, when she was arrested in Florida, the United States, for allegedly being in possession of a kilo of cocaine. Her case was later dismissed by the local judiciary. Last week, she was not sworn in along with the rest of the 23 new senators after the heads of the opposing Senate blocs decided to postpone her designation.  They requested that the constitutional affairs commission revise her situation after December 10, meaning that her seat will remain empty for now. The same commission had already issued a verdict contesting her designation two weeks ago. The Herald was able to verify that Villaverde filed her resignation before the lower house on November 13, saying it would be made effective on December 9 to allow her to take her seat in the Senate.  Argentine media outlets report she is now planning to withdraw her resignation letter amid her unclear situation in the senate. At the time of writing, however, she had not done so, according to a Congress source. The case against Lorena Villaverde The drug accusations against Villaverde had already made headlines when she was elected deputy in 2023. They resurfaced now after Peronist senators filed a complaint looking to prevent her from taking her seat as senator. According to the complaint, Villaverde was arrested on July 17, 2002, at the Sarasota airport alongside “Cuban and Colombian accomplices” while they were trying to enter the United States with a kilogram of cocaine. They were also in possession of US$17,000 in cash.  Villaverde was indicted for drug trafficking. The complaint adds that she was also accused of conspiracy and money laundering linked to drug trafficking after police found financial movements between Villaverde and Miami bank accounts. The details of what happened after that are unclear. Villaverde was ultimately released and returned to Argentina free of charges. Villaverde has said that she was wrongly accused and called for the opposition to leave the situation in the past. “All the false accusations against me that were used to question me were thoroughly investigated, and I was acquitted in all of them, both in Argentina and the United States,” she wrote in a recent X post. Online, she has shared a document online showing she has a clean criminal record in Argentina, as well as footage of her getting tested to prove that she has never done drugs. No me interesa entrar en el barro ni responder agravios.Prefiero demostrar con hechos que se puede hacer política con transparencia.Por eso me realicé un narcotest y una rinoscopía: la confianza se gana con gestos, no con discursos.En el siguiente link podés ver mis… pic.twitter.com/mmudrDz0pF— Lore Villaverde (@LoreVillaverde1) October 9, 2025 According to the complaint filed by opposition senators, however, Villaverde spent several months in prison and reached a plea bargain that allowed her to reduce her sentence in exchange for collaborating with the case. She eventually returned to Argentina, but the senators affirm she is no longer allowed to enter the U.S. The complaint also said that Villaverde was arrested for obstruction of justice in 2001 in Miami but was released because she did not have a criminal record. It added that Villaverde has also been investigated for several crimes in Argentina, including money laundering, drug trafficking, tax evasion, and fraud over the irregular sale of land in Río Negro, among others. The opposition is adamant that Villaverde cannot take her seat due to the alleged crimes. During the commission meeting that contested her designation, Peronist senator José Mayans said that it had been “proven” that she engaged in drug trafficking and therefore could “not be a member of the senate.” U.S. criminal records and documents published by fact-checking site Chequeado verify the arrests but provide no other details.  Several LLA members publicly backed Villaverde, including former Security Minister Patricia Bullrich — now a senator — Milei biographer Nicolás Márquez, and fellow LLA deputy Lilia Lemoine, among others. “The senators who are trying to proscribe her are breaking the law and should not be in the senate,” Lemoine told the Herald.