A new scandal has once again put the links between La Cámpora and the Unión Obrera Metalúrgica (UOM) under scrutiny. The union then led by Abel Furlánpaid over $126 million to a firm headed by Martín Reibel Maier, a member of La Cámpora, former official, and schoolmate of Máximo Kirchner, to develop the project for a complex that ultimately never materialized.
The operation began during the last months of the government of Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, when the State Property Administration Agency (AABE) removed a plot of approximately 80,000 square meters belonging to the National State and handed it over free of charge to the UOM through a “temporary and free permit.”
Martín Reibel Maier
The land, located in the Buenos Aires district of Tres de Febrero, was to house the so-called Nuevo Polo Multifuncional Unión Obrera Metalúrgica, with a convention center, training classrooms, sports areas, workshops, parking lots, and other buildings.
The process was resolved during the last quarter of 2023. At that time, the vice presidency of the AABE was held by Juan Debandi, a leader of La Cámpora and a close associate of Kirchnerism.
However, the UOM had already begun to plan the works months before formally receiving the land. In July 2023, it hired the firm made up of Reibel Maier and Andrea Mercado, which presented various proposals to develop the initial architectural works.
Reibel Maier was not a stranger within the Kirchnerist structure. In addition to having shared his school years with Máximo Kirchner in Río Gallegos, he was vice president of the AABE from 2012 to 2015 and later held positions within state companies and agencies.
The most important contract came on February 1, 2024, when Furlán accepted a new proposal to prepare the so-called “advanced preliminary project” and the corresponding plans for the planned buildings. The firm ended up receiving $126,787,567 plus VAT for the work related to the project.
Despite the million-dollar disbursement, the complex was never completed. In April 2024, the then-mayor of Tres de Febrero, Diego Valenzuela, ordered the UOM to stop any work upon noticing that the intended purpose for the property was incompatible with municipal zoning.
Additionally, he questioned the manner in which the land was handed over and pointed out the “speed, temporality, and improvisation” with which the procedure had been carried out during the final phase of the Kirchnerist government.
The episode emerges amid another recent scandal that also links La Cámpora with UOM funds. The Justice Department is investigating María Soledad Calle, a leader connected to Kirchnerism and the metalworking union, for alleged money laundering stemming from a case initiated for supposed fraud against the union.
María Soledad Calle, the Camporista linked to the OUM investigated for money laundering who bought the apartment next to CFK's.
Calle is linked to USEM, a company that received a percentage of the contributions made by UOM members. In that investigation, prosecutor Eduardo Taiano seeks to determine the origin of her assets and the funds attributed to the purchase of an apartment located beneath the property where Cristina Kirchner is serving her sentence for the Vialidad case.
Both episodes expose a recurring pattern surrounding the UOM during Furlán's leadership: million-dollar contracts with leaders linked to La Cámpora and operations developed around union resources or state assets. In this last case, over $126 million ended up allocated to an architectural project that never came to fruition.
