Yacht scandal: a judicial investigation between Lomas de Zamora and La Plata

The yacht scandal, as it is already known in the media, generated the resignation of who until a few days ago was the chief of staff of the Buenos Aires government, Martín Insaurralde, who is also the political head of Peronism in Lomas de Zamora, his small payment, place of which he was mayor for several periods. Insaurralde had left the mayoralty in 2021 to jump to the Buenos Aires Government after Peronism was defeated in the legislative elections of that year. It was Cristina Fernández de Kirchner herself who promoted at that time a kind of intervention in the Buenos Aires Government, and forced Governor Axel Kicillof to appoint Insaurralde as his Chief of Staff.Politically, Insaurralde managed to be the link between Cristina, La Cámpora and the mayors of the suburbs, a coexistence that was not always easy. The scandal that stars -with the dissemination of photos made by Sofia Clerici, of a few days in pure luxury in Marbella, aboard a yacht called Bandido- originated a complex judicial investigation that begins to take its steps, and that could also have links with another cause that is investigated in the province these days. That other cause is the one that tries to elucidate the steps of Julio “Chocolate” Rigau, the man surprised when he withdrew money from a branch of the Banco Provincia, in La Plata, from the account of 48 alleged employees of the Buenos Aires Legislature. This is when both investigations begin to intersect, since the head of the provincial Chamber of Deputies is precisely Federico Otermín, right hand of Insaurralde and the one chosen to succeed him in Lomas de Zamora.Otermín, a former journalist who came to the Government of Insaurralde years ago and who made a meteoric career of political ascent, is the current candidate for mayor of Lomas de Zamora, and the political heir in that municipality of the now former official of the government of Axel Kicillof.At the beginning of the case where “Chocolate” Rigau is investigated for the collection of money from Buenos Aires legislative employees, Justice asked Otermín to report, in his capacity as head of Buenos Aires Deputies, what are the positions and responsibilities exercised by the owners of the Banco Provincia cards that later appeared in the hands of “Chocolate”, The political pointer who proceeded to withdraw his “salaries” through ATMs. In the list of who were the holders of these cards, a first fact draws attention. There are several people with the surname Rigau: Maximiliano, Gerardo and Cristian.The Buenos Aires Peronism is at this time a hotbed and several theories are being tested about how and why the scandal of the photos and the yacht broke out on the Mediterranean Sea, which also included luxury wallets and watches. One theory points to a “recklessness” of the former mayor of Lomas, although many point to a “vendetta”, a revenge concocted by his enemies in the Peronist internal or by businessmen. Few believe in a “naïve” dissemination of the photos, and there is also a theory that points to a “return of favors” against Insaurralde by gambling entrepreneurs in the province, who would have been closed for a few days their bingos for delay in the payment of fees. Meanwhile, while these speculations continue, Guillermo Viñuales, the candidate for mayor of Lomas de Zamora of Together for Change, who knows Insaurralde for having been his municipal cabinet chief, said that the increase in his standard of living “is much more linked to the provincial government, with access to boxes such as that of the Chamber of Deputies of the province of Buenos Aires.” One more testimony that reunites the scandal of the extraction of legislative funds at ATMs with the luxurious lifestyle of Insaurralde.

Original source in Spanish