In a new instance of the trial for the Cuadernos Cause, the plot of alleged bribes that shook Kirchnerism once again exposes its crudest—and at times, unusual—side. The journalist Daniel Seifert, on the channel Border Journalism, He reviewed fragments of the file and revealed unpublished details about how the money was moved, quoting prosecutor Carlos Stornelli: the protagonists of the corruption network “were robbing each other.”
The term that the prosecutor used in the file was clear: there was “Mexicaneo” within the scheme. That is to say, not only were they officials and businessmen involved in the payment and transfer of bribes, but among the circuit participants themselves there was mistrust, internal traps and maneuvers to keep a part of the loot without the bosses noticing.
According to the story, the circuit of collecting and delivering bags included key stops: the Juncal building where the Kirchner couple lived, the Quinta de Olivos and the Casa Rosada. There was talk of million-dollar figures transported in different vehicles and even on official planes heading to the south of the country. The amounts were so large that, Stornelli says, it was “impossible to count the bills with the machine”; For this reason, those who received the money “counted packages, not bills.”
Greed escalated to such a level that some involved took precautions to take advantage of the sloppiness of logistics. “They had smaller bags made so they could keep part of it so they wouldn’t notice,” says Stornelli. Robberies were also recorded inside the homes of former secretaries, such as Fabián Gutiérrez and Daniel Muñoz. Before each episode, wells were dug in the gardens and walls were broken in search of hidden money.
The file also preserves scenes that border on the absurd. Seifert mentioned dialogues recorded between driver Oscar Centeno and former official Roberto Baratta, where personal economic tension filtered through millions. “Because of my salary, I don’t risk my head,” Centeno would have said. And in another, almost ironic passage, the driver was sincere: “Remember the poor a little bit. We pout too.” The response was immediate: Baratta, according to the file, gave him an empty purse.
The case advances, the testimonies accumulate and the trial promises to continue revealing details about the most resonant corruption machinery of recent decades in Argentina. But Stornelli’s phrase has already remained in Argentine judicial history: “They stole from each other”. A perfect postcard of a system where corruption, even between partners, recognized no limits.
