It is a few minutes before eight o’clock on a Thursday night in December and the thermometer still reads 40 degrees. But inside the gigantic tent for VIP guests, the weather is just perfect.
On a huge LED screen, you can follow the field hockey game played just a few meters away from two top-level women’s teams from comfortable armchairs, while a multitude of waiters attend to those who watch. Welcome to Santiago del Estero, capital of the Argentine province of the same name, a city with barely more than 250,000 inhabitants.
With the exception of the chronicler, none of those who enjoy the air conditioning in the tent seem very surprised, because this is the style with which Governor Gerardo Zamora, the man who for 18 years has been handling the fate of the place with an iron fist , has built his empire.
Built in luxury as part of a historic compensation agreement that Zamora signed with then-President Néstor Kirchner, and through which billions of dollars of federal funds arrived in the traditionally impoverished province to correct a traditional neglect of the territory , the hockey arena for 4,500 spectators joins a series of monumental works that include a large soccer stadium, a luxury racetrack, high-end hotel complexes, golf courses, an exclusive automobile museum and ultra-modern public buildings.
None of this would be striking if it were not for the fact that only in the capital and its neighboring city, La Banda, almost 40% of the population lives in poverty and that same number is repeated for those who do not have access to water in the province. .
However, those seem to be minor data for the vast majority who fervently support the governor, who wins each election with unusual numbers for any politician who has held power for more than eight years. Zamora is in his fourth term, although it could be said that it is his fifth, since when he had to give up running for a third consecutive government after a judicial battle, it was his wife, Claudia Ledesma Abdala, today president of the national Senate, who she ran, won with the same overwhelming numbers as her husband, and maintained power within the family.
The first city founded by the Spanish conquest in what is now Argentine territory, Santiago del Estero was the starting point for many expeditions that established the other capitals that surround it, including Córdoba, Salta and Tucumán. Although initially its strategic position gave it a privileged place in the colonial administration, its small population, mostly rural, turned it into a backyard that was added to present-day Argentina in 1820 by the hand of its first leader, Juan Felipe Ibarra, who was his lord and master for 30 years.
When Ibarra died, he was succeeded by his nephew, Manuel Taboada, who extended the family’s power for two more decades. In the years that followed, the constant was political instability, which probably generated nostalgia that paved the way for the arrival of the first caudillo of the 20th century, Carlos Arturo Juárez, a Peronist who remained in power for 50 years, although not always. was governor.
His reign ended when, in 2004, President Kirchner ordered federal intervention after a media scandal over the deaths of two young women. In the trial it was revealed that the head of the secret police, accused of murders and disappearances, had a file with information on 40,000 people. His fall was the great opportunity for Zamora, who was mayor for the opposition Unión Cívica Radical, the party of presidents Alfonsín and De la Rúa. After winning the elections, he discovered his best ally in Kirchner, even though they belonged to rival organizations, and he became part of a “transversal” project of the Peronist leader that included politicians from other parties.
The opposition lawyer Rodrigo Posse, a former provincial deputy from the party of former President Mauricio Macri, summarizes the relationship between Zamora and his predecessors: “The history of Santiago del Estero is one of warlords. Unfortunately, the society of Santiago to date has not known any other way of being governed”. And it is Governor Zamora himself who, in a long interview with La Vanguardia, admits that he does not mind being associated with that place: “When they call me a caudillo I am happy. For some porteños, the caudillo is a degenerate satrap of the Argentine north, oppressor of ignorant and poor peoples, and for the peoples of the north, the caudillo is the defender of federalism, ”he says firmly.
Zamora wastes no time listing his achievements: “If you ask me today what the reward of my management is, I would tell you that being able to read the indicators in my province and see that they are not the same as 15 years ago. We are a province that has generated a lot of basic infrastructure, we have no debts, there are some reserves, a surplus, and no employment, since we pay practically the same salary as in 2005. Of the ten northern provinces, today Santiago del Estero is the number one in exports”, he states enthusiastically.
To the political power held by the governor is added the economic power of his best ally, the ICK group, owner of the main communication media, such as local television, the two main newspapers, two very popular radio stations and the cable company, in addition from many other companies. A third newspaper that does not belong to this group also defends the provincial government: “Being an opposition deputy is very complicated in Santiago del Estero,” admits Alejandro Parnas, of the Frente Juntos por el Cambio, also of Macri’s line, and explains: ” We do not have access to the mass media as they are all monopolized by the government. The only way to appear is by talking about irrelevant situations, or telling things that in no way hit him. There is also no shortage of complaints about the partiality of the judiciary. Judges and civil servants went to university together and are often seen sharing friendly lunches in a bar.
But the presumptions of corruption, which are commonplace in the streets of Santiago as in any corner of Argentina when it comes to the government, have never been corroborated by concrete data. Julio Rodríguez, a correspondent for the newspaper Clarín, shares his experience: “I have had to collaborate in the investigation of some specific works and we have not found anything unusual. There are many complaints, although only three or four have reached the courts and Zamora has done well in all of them, ”he points out.
In November, graffiti appeared at the entrances to Buenos Aires announcing a potential formula made up of Zamora and Cristina Kirchner for the presidential elections next October, a few days before the vice president was sentenced in a corruption trial and barred from running for life. to public office. His challenge has opened all kinds of speculation about who will be the Peronist candidate, and although the governor of Santiago del Estero has been one of the most active figures in a dispute between the provinces and the Supreme Court, in the interview with La Vanguardia he insisted in which he will not participate in the competition: “I do not want to be a candidate for president because I do not have the intention or give me the piné, hopefully whoever arrives in the future has the ability to resolve the situation,” he confessed.
However, the context could be different four years from now. After a presidency as complicated as that of Alberto Fernández, shaken by the pandemic and the unstoppable advance of inflation, a defeat for Peronism is expected and the return of Macri’s party to the Casa Rosada. But it would not be a delusion to think that Peronism can win again when that mandate ends, and then Zamora would have the opportunity to go for more.
For now, the strong man from Santiago has his eyes on home: “I have three more years in office and I don’t have re-election in 2025, so my dream has to do with what I’m doing now as governor, that is to say tomorrow do something, next month do something else and consolidate some State policies so that the province develops more and more”, he says relaxed.
