Global Courant
Gabriel Batistuta tried to keep himself whole, but ended up broken in the air. He was giving a radio interview to defend himself against accusations against him. A sector of the Kirchnerist trade unionism of Santa Fe, under the umbrella of the Argentine Union of Rural Workers and Stevedores (UATRE), had denounced him for exploitation and mistreatment in one of his fields in Reconquista, his place in the world.
He had found out in the morning, while he was hanging out at his house in Malabrigo, reading the digital newspapers. She adjusted the search: they said atrocities on social networks, photos of supposed precarious houses of her laborers went viral. She thought, “Why again?” The evidence was flimsy, but the media impact seemed unstoppable.
How to stop it? Go out to talk? Just the Bati, who escapes from the media, who cultivates a low profile? He decided to defend himself. Not because of him, she would say later, but because the engine that moves those lands is Don Osmar, his 75-year-old father, the one who puts claw and body into the business. “My family does not deserve this,” concluded the former 9 of the National Team.
Before giving the interview in which he cried, with the journalist Gustavo Raffin, from Reconquista Hoy, he tweeted, with a photo: “These are the 35 houses for the use of our rural staff and their families. We build one house per year. We invested in school, roads, electricity and solar screens Our workers enroll in accordance with the law of the Labor Contract Law and the Statute of the Rural Laborer”.
In a second tweet, he added: “We respect union agreements. We have a labor doctor and a graduate in industrial safety and hygiene permanently to verify the conditions of the entire establishment. These images are from today, inside the field. All this and more Is it breaching?”
The photos of Gabriel Batistuta’s response to a union complaint about the conditions of his laborers in Santa Fe. They are the houses he built for his employees.
For José Voytenco, apparently, yes. The head of the UATRE must endorse his complaint in judicial instances on July 14. He must maintain that there was, as the ultra-government websites published, “a Batigol against.” Voytenco is the man who took over the union after two deaths. First, that of Gerónimo “el Momo” Venegas, who had founded a more moderate and dialogue-oriented Macrista trade unionism, and then that of Momo’s successor, Ramón Ayala, a victim of Covid in 2020.
With Voytenco at the fore, according to sources in the province, the UATRE turned radically. “We were always Peronists,” proclaimed the 61-year-old from Chaco as he forged alliances with Pablo Moyano and obtained financial support in the offices of Alberto Fernández, Axel Kiciloff and Máximo Kirchner.
Voytenco made the UATRE return to the CGT. He buried the macrista past and began to manage a very attractive box for politics at the time of the electoral campaign. Some say that a pact with Sergio Massa’s bishops allowed Voytenco to consolidate his power. Today the UATRE manages $800 million monthly. His social work, Osprera, about $2.8 billion. There are more than 12 million dollars that arise from the contribution of 2% of the salary of 400,000 active affiliates, the contribution to health by workers and companies and other sources of financing.
José Voytenco, the head of the UATRE who denounced Gabriel Batistuta with little evidence.
Voytenco believes that 7 out of 10 rural employees work in the black. He goes fishing and has political support to keep an eye on big businessmen in the core area of Santa Fe. It is the same area of influence of the candidate for vice president of the Nation for the ruling party, Agustín Rossi. The Rossis, a strong last name in the neighboring department of Vera, manage various businesses related to land but also to transportation in Santa Fe, among other transportation from other cities in the country.
According to Voytenco, at the Batistuta ranch, they found “seven workers in precarious housing, without overtime pay, without registration and without work clothes.” There were no papers, there was only a confused photo, no more evidence was presented, he spoke of moisture stains. Batistuta, then, broke out in anger. In parallel, he decided to initiate legal action against the union.
This Saturday, in the midst of the conflict, Patricia Bullrich came out to support him. “He gives work, generates wealth and today the union mafia persecutes him,” said the pre-candidate for president in a criticism of Voytenco.
the family company
Batistuta & Batistuta is a family farming company dedicated to cattle raising for more than 30 years. There are six ranches that extend over 126,000 hectares between the so-called wooded wedge and the southern lowlands of Santa Fe, very close to the border with Chaco. There the majority possibilities are two: soy or cattle.
They produce Bradford, a hybrid between Hereford and Brahman cows. “All the money that Bati earned was put in Argentina, he brought it to the country so that his family could carry out this venture that they love. It is all responsible work with the highest quality standards,” Pablo Tiburzi, one of the best friends of 9, explains to Clarín. “The Batistutas still do not know what the specific complaint is, but they can demonstrate everything they do: the 35 houses , the solar energy panels, the school for the children of the employees, the two sons of laborers who are already going to university. But this goes back, from when Bati refused to pay the wealth tax, ”he adds.
Juan Capozzolo, another acquaintance in the area, contributes: “Due to the crisis, many small producers are leaving and can’t make it. That is why I can assure you that everyone wants to work with an employer of the quality of the Batistutas”.
“It smells to me that they want to force him to sell or put up money for the campaign,” they define from sectors close to the Vicentín company, which also knows about pressure.
Batistuta is one of the largest taxpayers in the province and the country. He wants to live in peace. But he doesn’t shut up if something bothers him. His name always sounds like a candidate for Together for Change. Miguel Del Sel tempted him when he was fighting for the governorship of Santa Fe. But the former player always refused. He doesn’t want to do politics. Yes claim for what he considers fair.
In August 2022, he criticized the Government for the lack of pedestrian works on Route 11. “Do you know the people who were killed on Route 11? I am asking for a bridge, a bridge! I am trying to save lives. I’m not attacking anyone, I’m telling the truth.”
Later, he declared: “I pay millions of pesos in taxes for the countryside… You have to pay the taxes and have the benefits to pay them: I mean the roads in good condition, the bridges… Where do my withholdings go? Because if I see fabulous works, I shut my mouth”.
Batistuta in one of his fields making a barbecue.
But the great counterpoint with Kirchnerism comes from his refusal to pay in 2021 the wealth tax created by Máximo Kirchner to “moderate the effects of the pandemic.” Batistuta did not agree to pay and filed an appeal for protection in the Federal Justice. Because of that, three properties were seized for 71 million pesos. “I didn’t want to pay and they killed me,” he declared then, “but I wasn’t going to accept something I disagreed with.”
It was a stigma. Later on, she had to pay a new embargo from the AFIP. Always millions, always finally to regulation, sometimes tired. “Yes,” he confessed this week, “sometimes I think about leaving the country, grabbing everything and that’s it. But this is my place. Where are we going to go? My hope in the end is that something will change.” Perón said that “a comrade is one who shares the cause and works for the same thing, beyond the forms.” Batistuta ignored that phrase from the missal and for Kirchnerism, he simply stopped being an idol. Much less a partner. The consequences, now, can be seen.
