Lázaro Báez expanded Cristina Kirchner's hotel in 2007, while receiving millionaire public works contracts – Up Jobs News

EL CALAFATE.- In 2007, while Lazarus Baez It already had the machinery oiled to receive quickly and without pause what would be more than 2.2 billion dollars of public works in Santa Cruz, He also had to supervise the expansion work of the Los Sauces hotel of the Kirchners and pay the chosen architect. This was established in an agreement signed in a notary’s office in Río Gallegos and which was part of the documentation seized in the Hotesur case.

In February 2007, Cristina Kirchner –represented by her son Máximo Kirchner– signed a deed in which she ceded a 6,000-square-meter plot of land to Austral Construcciones as a counterpart to the work he carried out in his favorite hotel.. The land had been acquired as fiscal land two years earlier and according to the records it was worth 45 times its original price..

Is Commercial transaction between the main contractor of public works in Santa Cruz and the then presidential candidate, who was published by LA NACION in October 2016, today it becomes relevant while the case is aired roadin whose first three hearings of the allegations, prosecutors demonstrated how in those years the favoritism of public works towards Báez accelerated, a man who at the same time cultivated close business ties with the Kirchners.

The transfer of land as a form of payment for the works carried out for the Los Sauces hotel was registered in deed 61, folio 0218, of Registry 37 of Río Gallegos, of which Leandro Albornoz is owner. in the minutes it was agreed that the payment to Báez was for $1,644,570 plus VAT. This compensation was made with land that Cristina Kirchner had bought from the municipality two years before for 45 times less that value: $35,000.

Although Austral Construcciones received the payment for the land to build Los Sauces, it did not do so directly, but rather subcontracted the architect Paul Grippo for the work commissioned by today’s vice president. One of the agreements between Grippo and Austral, which appears in the Hotesur case, was signed in November 2006 and was for the construction of the hotel spa of 250 square meters and a service area of ​​139 square meters.

As recreated before THE NATION witnesses of that work, the relationship between Grippo and Báez was not easy. Grippo built with his company, Báez could supervise the work, but the payment of the fortnights was a cumbersome process. The architect had to travel the 300 kilometers that separate this city from Río Gallegos for the businessman to pay him for the progress of the work and more than once, when he arrived, Báez did not attend him or had left. He was Nestor Kirchner -then president- who should intercede to “unlock” payments.

The Kirchners and Báez not only maintained an oiled bond based on the granting of public works, but also an active commercial link: they shared real estate transactions, the construction of apartments, rentals, the management of hotels and even a condominium of almost nine hectares in El Calafate.

In the contract, which was seized at the Albornoz notary’s office, it was detailed that the modality of the work would be turnkey and that Báez’s company would pay Grippo $1,231,157 for the two works, while with the signing of the contract he would gave a 30% advance: $369,347. Namely: Báez’s company paid Grippo for the work in Cristina Kirchner’s hotel.

The contract also details that the client (that is, Austral) could inspect the work at any time, but not take possession until it was completed. And he clarifies that all the risks of contracting labor depended on the architect.

Three months after the construction contract was signed, Máximo Kirchner signed in Río Gallegos (and on behalf of his mother) the deed through which Cristina Kirchner transferred lot 2, block 801, of 6001 square meters, to Austral Construcciones. The document details:This assignment is made by the assignor in favor of the assignee, in payment for the work that is erected in the property located in the city of El Calafate individualized as plot 5J, block 42 C”. The block in which the Los Sauces hotel is located.

It also clarifies that they respond to previously signed contracts for $684,720 and $959,850, to which VAT must be added: the final amount (without VAT) is $1,644,570.

The deed also stated that Austral Construcciones would receive the transfer of the right to the land and that in the future it would make the request for the public deed “transfer of ownership”. It was also made clear that the transfer had the consent of Néstor Kirchner.

According to internal documentation of the Austral Group, to which he had access THE NATIONBáez records in a list of real estate that the transfer of lot 2 of block 801 was obtained for the works carried out on Quinta 10. It is a piece of land adjoining block 42 C, on which the Kirchners built the extension of Los Willows.

Curiosity? The Fifth 10 was from Báezbut he exchanged it with the former president for half of the condominium of almost nine hectares that they share in Punta Soberanaas revealed by this medium in 2013.

Until 2016, shortly before the properties of the Kirchner family were placed under judicial seizure, the property had not yet been registered in the name of Austral Construcciones. Cristina Kirchner had bought lot 2 of block 801 from the municipality of El Calafate when public land was being sold at $7.50 per square meter, through municipal decree 187/05. It is one of the many lots that the Kirchners acquired in Santa Cruz, which totaled more than 200,000 square meters in downtown areas and on the outskirts of the city.

According to this medium, Néstor Kirchner declared that land in 2005 as his own and then it no longer appeared in the affidavits of the former presidents. One possible explanation is that he had already been given on loan.