The UCeDé - originally limited to right-wing snobs in the upscale Recoleta district of Buenos Aires - had their day in the sun in the '90s, when they joined (some would say, ran) the freewheeling Carlos Menem administration.
The alliance between the elitist UCeDé and the (formerly) populist Menem reached tabloid proportions when, in August 1990, it was reveled that Menem - who had just separated from the First Lady - was carrying on an affair with María Julia Alsogaray - the daughter of the curmudgeonly founder, Álvaro.
He then named her Environment Secretary - an appointment she attributed to the "trust the president deposited in me."
"Have you heard?" a salacious joke went at the time, "they're now calling it 'trust'."
María Julia (who died in 2017) is, to this day, probably the best-remembered UCeDé figure - mainly over her affair with Menem, as well as her very gaudy corruption - including some $200 million in unaccounted-for offshore transfers.
A lot of that is believed to have come from bribes she collected during her stints as federal receiver for the state-owned steel and phone companies during their (scandalous) 1990 privatizations.
As you can imagine, a lot of UCeDé figures - who had to lay low after the 2001/02 calamity - were recycled right back into the Macri administration - probably the closest thing to an "UCeDé administration" Argentina ended up having.
The unhinged Javier Milei, should he win this November, hopes to outdo that.
María Julia Alsogaray, her father Álvaro, and the latter's running mate, Alberto Natale, during their failed 1989 campaign.
Arguably the closet thing in Argentina to "country club Republicans," the UCeDé scored a distant 3rd place in the elections but ended up having a prominent role in the Menem administration - particularly during his disastrous first two years (when large deposits were seized, in exchange for near-worthless bonds).
Their support from big business has allowed them to resurface - under different guises - in the Macri regime, and now in the far-right Milei campaign.
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