The mayor who offered 10,000 for one vote was reelected with 57%

The action generated repudiation. Juan Manuel Caudana, the mayor of Santa Clara of Buena Vista, a small town of Santa Fe, offered 10,000 pesos to a person to vote for it. Finally, this Sunday he was reelected with almost 60% of the votes.

Last Friday the Electoral Court confirmed his candidacy despite the request of the attorney of the Supreme Court of Justice of the province, Jorge Barraguirre, that he be excluded from the electoral process. However on November 14 Caudana achieved re-election with 57.4% of the votes, leaving second to Antonio Lescano of the Community Affirmation Movement, who kept 24%.

In an audio that went viral two weeks before the elections, the mayor is heard telling a third party to send him a photograph of his vote in exchange for a sum of money: “Take a photo of the vote, because if not, because if we lose, you will be able to take only 10 thousand pesos because I am not going to put another handle of my resources for social aid and politics, so good … Make the effort to that we win and you are going to collect all that help ”.

In the same message, he explains that “they have not yet transferred a part of the resources” but that “they are going to do it.” He continues commenting that between November 14 and 16 they would deliver him “Around 10 thousand pesos” and in December, “If the games come, they add the others for 59.” “So good, Come on Tuesday they are going to give you the money “, completes the communal head of the locality located in the southwest of the Las Colonias department.

The audio was circulated while at the national level there was a debate on “the silver plan”, in relation to the strategy set by the national government to promote consumption and state assistance with a view to reversing the results of the PASO.

After his message went viral, Caudana tried to justify what happened through his social networks. “I want to clarify about the audio that circulates on aid to people who need to be assisted by sick children, precarious housing, overcrowding; etc. The Ministry of Social Welfare has been sending resources for several months and they are managed by the social worker and I only explain to them that if we are not a government, it is logical that this ends, ”he explained on Facebook.

“We distribute it, we do not make apartments, ostentatious houses or take over land, etc. We give it to those who need it most”He added.

In that sense and in a second publication, the communal chief pointed out other people who would be from the opposition: “Besides I want to win the elections. These two candidates were in public service and we know what they did. For the sake of my children and future generations never appear again. “My only mistake was serving a bad person who is on an opposition list. Everyone knows me, whoever needed Caudana was always there “, he emphasized.

In another unusual justification, he stated: “I was wrong wrong. They are mistakes that one makes through exhaustion. Besides, I come from a post-COVID, from an operation, the fatigue of attending the commune … My social worker went to Australia and my private secretary had breast cancer, she did not come for a year “, test. “All of this is reflected in the fact that we make mistakes”, he excused himself.

Caudana then spoke publicly and targeted the person he would have bribed to access a social benefit. He even accused him of having sold those audios “for 50 thousand pesos.” “I know that person, he tortured me. He is a person who, if we give him things to work with, sells them. If we give him to fix the bathroom, he will not do it “, explained in radio dialogue Network.

“I was wrong. The only way to get rid of the person was to tell them that., because he was a member of the opposition list. I never bought a vote “he insisted.

In this context, he justified the payment of the 10,000 pesos for the recipient of the recording because social assistance “we cannot deny him”, and clarified that this type of aid comes “from my resources” because “he is retired” and ” he does not receive a salary ”. Regarding the rest of the amounts committed, the communal chief assured: “We didn’t give him anything, not a peso. We know him, I swear to you on the lives of my five children “.

The leader tried to minimize the fact by recalling other cases of alleged corruption in the same town of Santa Fe, accusing previous efforts of patronage, although he clarified that he did not make any complaint. “What am I going to report? What were transfers for poor people? I did not report it because I did not know it was illegal, “he summarized.

Despite the repercussions of the scandal, Caudana had stated that he did not intend to resign from his position. “If the people vote for me, why am I going to resign? I am a person who works with a community without debt, balanced and with a lot of works achieved in the last six months of my administration ”, he concluded. This Sunday he managed to be reelected with strong popular support.

The opposition anticipated legal actions to investigate the behavior of the communal chief of Santa Clara de Buena Vista. The national deputy of Together for Change, Lucila Lehmann, criminally denounced today Caudana for breach of Article 139 of the National Electoral Code, which establishes that “it will be punished with prison from one to three years who with violence or intimidation prevents exercising an electoral office or the right to vote, or compels a voter to vote in a determined manner “and”breach of public official duties”.

“If the people vote for me, why am I going to resign?”, assured Caudana,

The communal head of the Frente de Todos denied the complaints against him. As reported Air of Santa Fe, denied the veracity and authenticity of the facts that are imputed to him and rejected the audios as evidence, understanding that they are “confidential.”

However, for the court attorney, the attached audios “were public, not private correspondence.” “They are manifestations of an institutional political nature about the electoral process itself, about how Mr. Communal President conceives democracy, about how local authority and government are constituted, and about the means (legitimate or not) that can be used to obtain the triumph in their political community: they are far from being confidential ”, argued Barraguirre.

In statements to Radio 2 of Rosario, Caudana crossed the procurator: “Come and investigate. I am not afraid that the result will be contested, that they come and ask how many votes I bought ”.