What we have seen these days in the Buenos Aires Parliament is not just another anecdote: it is confirmation that the system has reached its limits. In order to approve a new billion-dollar debt, the provincial government negotiated with part of the opposition about expanding the board of Banco Provincia and distributing these positions as bargaining chips. Nine seats for the ruling party, five for the opposition, very high salaries and decision-making power in one of the main funds of the state of Buenos Aires.
I’m not saying it: they said it in the middle of the meeting. From La Libertad Avanza they spoke of an “unscrupulous, obscene and explicit pact” to release the debt in exchange for positions at Banco Provincia. Beyond the party labels, the message to society is serious: we all pay the debt; The fees are distributed among a few.
And if you look at these negotiations in the light of the “Chocolate” Rigau case, the picture becomes even harsher. In September 2023, Julio “Chocolate” Rigau was arrested at a Banco Provincia ATM in La Plata with between 45 and 48 debit cards belonging to suspected employees of the Buenos Aires Parliament, more than a million pesos in cash and noted passwords. The subsequent investigation revealed that around 465 million pesos were withdrawn from Banco Provincia ATMs over the years using this mechanism alone, with the funds destined for “ghost” employees.
Justice must determine all criminal responsibilities. But politically, the message is already clear: Banco Provincia repeatedly appears as a scene of opaque political financing, privileges and clientelistic networks. It is the same bank that is becoming a trophy in debt negotiations today. The same instrument, two different scandals, a common matrix.
For me, this is “the straw that broke the camel’s back”. It’s not enough to be outraged about proper names. If we only change the last names on the board, but maintain the structure that makes this possible, in a few years we will be discussing the next scandal, the next “chocolate”, the next position pact.
This structure has a name: an ungovernable, disproportionate and overlapping province of Buenos Aires. A province where almost half of Argentines live, with 135 municipalities, 8 electoral divisions, 12 health regions, 19 judicial departments, 25 educational regions and 32 security headquarters that converge. Everything overlaps, nothing completely matches.
In A new Buenos Aires We have proposed a basic institutional response: the restructuring of the province into five new provinces – Buenos Aires del Norte, Buenos Aires del Sur, Buenos Aires Atlántica, Luján and Río de la Plata – organized into two large regions: Buenos Aires Region and Federal Urban Region. It is not a geographical whim, but a change in incentives and scale.
What does this have to do with Banco Provincia and the Rigau case?
A lot. Today, a single governor, a single legislature, and a single party structure are the keys to a gigantic box. In such a large and heterogeneous territory, citizen control is weakened, transparency becomes more difficult and the “political costs” of using the bank as a prey decrease dangerously. Another scandal in the suburbs is lost in the flood of everyday problems.
Instead, five smaller provinces with their own public banks or locally controlled financial systems would force a different relationship between power and citizenship. The mayor or governor who appoints directors in “his” regional bank will know that the neighbors are watching him closely, that the scandal cannot be hidden behind the excuse “the province is very big” and that responsibility will not be diluted in the endless suburbs.
In addition, a new provincial organization would allow for better alignment of political representation, resources and control. Today the province is underrepresented in the National Congress, but its administrative apparatus is oversized. This combination is perfect for the politics of viewing Buenos Aires as a plunder rather than a civic community. The division of the province does not mean punishment, but the restoration of identity, governability and dignity.
That’s why I insist: the negotiations over fees at Banco Provincia are not just a bad photo; It is the symptom of an exhausted system. The “Chocolate” Rigau case is not just the story of a pointer; It is an X-ray image of political financing that relies on opaque, gigantic and difficult-to-control structures.
The question is not whether we are outraged by what happened. The question is what we do with this outrage. We can stick to episodic denunciation or encourage ourselves to seriously discuss a new institutional architecture for the province, like the one we developed in A New Buenos Aires, so that these scandals no longer are almost inevitable but become real exceptions.
“The straw that broke the camel’s back” shouldn’t just be a title. It should be a turning point. If we really want the Banco Provincia to once again be synonymous with productive development and credit for those who work, and not with political privileges and ghost cards, then we must promote a fundamental reform: a new Buenos Aires, to truly renew the pact of national unity and put an end to the logic of cash as loot.
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