Through a series of coincidences, the act of opacity became clear and corruption in the area Chiqui Tapia. We’ve already seen the mansions, the Ferraris, the trout financiers, the suspicious contracts and the tax flushes. But there are questions that go beyond the president of the AFA and force us to take a look at Argentina’s institutional mechanisms: How can one go so far and so calmly in accumulating unexplained fortunes? How can such an architecture of ghost companies, straw men and secret business networks be built without the alarm being raised in time by the control organizations? Or are these sensors activated and intentionally ignored?
The case Wall It presents us once again with the obligation to review a business model and a business matrix that have been consolidated in Argentina over the last decades. It is a plot in which football, politics, trade unionism and dark dealings mix. But it has had obvious complicity in sensitive areas of the state where they have often not seen the elephants pass before their eyes.
Has an alarm been triggered in any aisle of the system? when a humble monotributista and his retired mother registered a mansion in Villa Rosa, which also includes a farm and a helipad, in their names? Did no one ask anything while a fleet of Porsches, Ferraris and luxury motorcycles came through customs? Didn’t any regulator find it strange that a financier liked this? Ariel Vallejo Will we go from being economically insignificant to managing incalculable amounts of money in a very short space of time? The answers seem to refer to a system infected with complicity, where “turning a blind eye” is practiced without pretense and with betrayal.
Political connections provide at least one key. Tapia is a civil servant in his free time Axel Kicillof: appointed him president of the Ceamsethe organization that deals with waste disposal throughout the city. He had already been vice president of the same organization, but was appointed by Rodríguez Larreta. Tapia comes from the world of waste disposal. And it never went away.
The Treasurer the AFA, Pablo Tovigginodoes not hide a very close and very suggestive connection with the strong man of Santiago del Estero, Gerardo Zamora. His relationship with Sergio Massa. He is often forgotten, but because of this connection he was mentioned earlier this year as a likely director of a US strategic area Provincial Bank. This designation was ruled out, but there was even a request for reports in the Buenos Aires Senate warning of this possibility and denouncing gross incompatibilities. Maybe it was an experimental balloon. But the version sounded credible, because Kicillof’s alliance with Tapia did not end with Ceamse: he also gave him the keys to the Unique stadium of La Plata and created room for a “change of address” to protect the AFA from inspection by the relevant national jurisdiction IGJ.
Hidden behind the successes of the national team of Messi and ScaloniTapia built his own network of connections and businesses. He even created a “university” whose visible face, although thin on paper, has a former university rector UBA, Alberto Barbieri. Luring actors from various fields, from the judiciary to academia, with positions and favors has been one of the football emperor’s strategies: the AFA’s disciplinary and ethics courts are full of judges who serve on both sides of the counter. Isn’t there an ethical obstacle? Don’t you feel uneasy about the storm of suspicions and complaints that is now shaking the company’s leadership? Although it is a civil society, the AFA has the economic power, size and legal complexity of a multinational corporation: Can a practicing judge sit on the board of a commercial corporation? Maybe that one Justice Councilor have something to say.
This network of relationships could serve to explain protection with which Tapia and Toviggino came here. But there are questions that will become increasingly relevant in the future: What will the justice system do when there is so much evidence on the table? Will he look the other way or act independently, boldly and professionally? Will he commit to numbing the causes or will he decide to thoroughly investigate the complex and dark web of corruption in which football has become enmeshed? Of course, legal proceedings require time and procedural rigor; She cannot follow the noise of public opinion or social networks. But they also require determination, speed and strength. Will there be judges willing to do their job in the face of such displays of obscenity?
The Vialidad trials and now the Cuadernos trial have left a furrow in the fight against corruption. However, it remains necessary for the judiciary and the state in general to erect a consistent barrier against a mafia archetype that has taken root in the country and pursues political goals, but also in other areas. The weakness of institutional brakes has made Argentina a “land of opportunity” for shady corporate networks. All this has encouraged black money instead of investments.
For this reason Tapia is a clear and noisy exponent of a much broader matrix. It is part of a cultural and business model that was shaped during Kirchnerism and is still in effect. This year, without going any further, a series of leaks, tragedies and coincidences revealed some prototypical characters of this culture: Elias Piccirillo, Miguel Angel Calvete, Ariel Garcia Furfaronow the financier Vallejo. They are all part of a new social typology: They are individuals who manage exorbitant amounts of money through shell companies, who conduct business in the shadows, but at the same time openly display their wealth. They have appeared in scandals like this Andis and adulterated fentanyl. Are they also linked to the rise of drug trafficking, illegal gambling and drug trafficking networks?
If there is something that defines this fauna, it is the presumption of impunity. They demonstrate power and money. They don’t hide, they don’t pretend. They move with the gestures and display of the “untouchables.” Are they?
It is true that they have suffered some “losses” recently. Piccirillo, Calvete and García Furfaro are in prison, but that was more due to their own ineptitude and the accidental force of the scandal than to the timely and methodical response of the institutional mechanisms. In general, state control authorities come suspiciously late. And justice acts in many cases when there is no other option.
The dramatic thing is that things were happening long before the scandals broke out They were already in sight. Were the dark machinations of Tapia and Toviggino not known in the world of football and politics? The answer can be found in the famous tweet from Carlos Tevez March 6, 2024: I’ve already talked about the collection of luxury cars in Pilar’s country house, the “buried bags you brought from Qatar” and the suspicious transactions between team friends. Did no one in the AFA ethics court read it? Didn’t anyone think he should act on his own authority? Silence and complicit indifference are part of the “model.” If we look at other high-profile cases, from Insaurralde to that of former Senator Küider, it is confirmed that “everyone knew,” except the AFIP (now ARCA), which has just installed in its leadership an official denounced for evasion. The anti-money laundering organizations, the anti-corruption office and of course the courts knew nothing about it.
Tapia and Toviggino Now they offer an opportunity. If the judiciary would dare to act and the control authorities would investigate what the mistakes were that have made so many elephants invisible, perhaps a path to moral healing could begin in Argentina. There is a society that is watching. Maybe I do this with skepticism, but also with hope.
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