In another chapter of a tense internal and determined to recover the reins of management as mayor of hurlingham After his tenure as Minister of Social Development of the Nation, Juan Zabaleta today displaced four officials linked to The Campora who had been appointed by the interim communal chief, Damian Selciwhich responds to number two of the PAMI, martin rodriguezAlready maximum kirchnerwho forced a tense negotiation with the community chief.
Zabaleta resolved to intervene in four areas: Public Works, Culture, Commerce and Environment. The four secretaries were occupied by camporista leaders appointed by Selci, who replaced Zabaleta in August 2021 when the communal chief became Alberto Fernández’s minister. Selci governed for just over a year and appointed a new cabinet, aligned with La Cámpora and the local Kirchnerist groups. Some of those officials, who replaced those loyal to Zabaleta, are still in office today.
“It is a government decision, from the management dynamics, to place our own people in key areas, such as public works,” they told THE NATION sources close to Zabaleta, who tried to relativize a breach of the agreement that Zabaleta and Selci had sealed following passing through the national administration. In addition, sources from the western district of Greater Buenos Aires denied that it is a massive cut in personnel. “It is a management decision, to streamline the work,” they insisted close to the mayor.
Zabaleta today appointed Rafael Ochoa as the new Secretary of Public Works, who already performed this function in the municipality, and who will replace Facundo Cadavid. And he placed Rody Rodríguez instead of Daniela Campisi in Culture, who will drop in rank and will now be an undersecretary. Ariel Simoni and Abril Kopriva will leave Trade and Environment, respectively. In these two areas, the replacements have not yet been designated, according to the official statement from the municipality of Hurlingham.
Zabaleta revoked his license as mayor at the end of October last year, with a session of the Deliberative Council that approved his return to the mayor’s office. In that body he has only four councilors who answer to him, out of 20 in total.
Zabaleta was also a member, together with the Minister of Public Works of the Nation, Gabriel Katopodis (political head of the neighboring municipality of San Martín) the closest environment of Alberto Fernandez when he became President, in 2019. The trio had shared the Complir Justicialist Front in 2017, with which they Florencio Randazzo competed in the Buenos Aires legislative elections once morest Cristina Kirchner, then at the head of Citizen Unity. A few weeks following the election, both ended up getting closer to Kirchnerism once more and Randazzo, who had Fernández as campaign manager, distanced himself.
With the arrival of Fernández at the Casa Rosada, Zabaleta and Katopodis became promoters of “albertismo”, a new nucleus of power that placed the President at the top, an initiative that Fernández himself deactivated before he began to walk. At the same time, both worked so that the dialogue bridges between the president, his vice president and the rest of the tribes that make up the Frente de Todos would not be cut.
In 2021, Zabaleta and La Cámpora were on the verge of breaking up as a result of tensions over the assembly of councilor lists, although they finally reached an agreement that avoided some internal ones in which the then minister promised to compete.
The benchmark for La Cámpora in Hurlingham is martin rodrigueznumber two of the PAMI, a dependency commanded by his partner, Luana Volnovich, also from the Máximo Kirchner group. Rodríguez has aspirations to compete this year for mayor.
THE NATION