Los Sauces, Cristina's favorite hotel, owes more than a million pesos in taxes and services

Lucia Salinas

07/27/2020 - 13:00

• Clarín.com
• Politics

It was the first hotel of the Kirchner family. The "gem of the crown", as Cristina's former accountant , Víctor Manzanares, called it. "Los Sauces Casa Patagónica" is the most exclusive and expensive of the four tourist accommodations that they built on Santa Cruz land. The vice president personally took care of every detail of its decoration. It was part of another real estate business with Lázaro Báez, because it was expanded on Austral Construcciones land. Since 2016 it closed its doors. And according to the latest report of the judicial intervention, it  accumulates debts for more than a million pesos , its facilities suffered deterioration, it does not generate economic movements and also, it was found that its papers they have various irregularities.

According to the accountant Víctor Manzanares, custodian of the wealth numbers of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner for decades, the hotel functioned as the “ main financial leverage in the increase in Kirchner assets . " When in the case of Cuadernos de las Coimas He became repentant, explaining that the administration of the complex  "had the highest levels of location values, but less occupancy and fewer rooms ."

In this context, he said that the administrator Juan Carlos Relats "rented the entire complex to the Kirchners for $ 120,000 per month. That contract lasted about two years, and when it was renewed, it was unified in value. A single contract was made and a rental value at $ 90,000, with a clause by which that value was increased as long as hotel occupancy exceeded 50 percent of the occupancy level. "

Manzanares said that Los Sauces was rented to the Relats Group for 11 years, at $ 90,000 a month : "this contract meant a sum of between $ 10 and $ 11 million of blank income to the Kirchner economy . " That commercial relationship ended in 2016, because they did not agree on the amount of the royalty to renew.

Since then, the hotel's doors have remained closed. Los Sauces is located next to Cristina Kirchner's residence in El Calafate, and is part of her heritage inherited in equal parts from her sons Máximo and Florencia Kirchner.

Like the other hotels in the family, it belongs to the Hotesur family society, which according to justice was used to launder money in triangulation maneuvers with Lázaro Báez that lasted years. Then, it passed into the hands of the Máximo Condominium and Florencia Kirchner, which manages 25 properties from the former president's estate. And that he was intervened by justice. The last report of the intervention -of July 7-  exposed a series of irregularities and debts of the Los Sauces tourist complex .

First of all, the report analyzes the debts contracted by the hotel. The judicial controller maintains that, despite "repeated requests to the Municipality of El Calafate" -governed by the Kirchnerista Javier Belloni- to inform me of the debt for municipal taxes and the tax valuation of the property, "to date I have not received Any information".

However, the inspector managed to get municipal officials to at least report a first figure: " They verbally informed me that the municipal debt was in the order of 100,000 pesos,  and they promised to send me a tax valuation of the property, mindful that the Hotel was located on it Los Sauces Casa Patagónica ".

Other debts must be added to this figure. "When I took over, I found a debt for services provided to the complex in previous years, which as of December 31 mattered: with Public Services Sociedad del Estado 605,745 pesos, and with Distrigas 441,195 pesos, " states the report. Faced with the figure -that adding the unpaid municipal rates yield a value of 1,146,940 pesos-  the intervention reported that it is managing a "moratorium or extended payment term plan to normalize the situation", attentive to "the lack of funds in this intervention, and the meager ones I have in Los Sauces ".

On this point, the intervention indicated that the construction plans had not yet been delivered , and that in the municipality they reported "that they had been seized at the time of the intervention of the assets of the Kirchner condominium." In addition, it was recorded that to date, "no documentation related to the property or the hotel's commercial activity" was found and that the Kirchner family " have not provided any documentation or provided information in this regard" .

The municipal authorization of the complex was another observed point. "The last authorization corresponded to Panatel SA, which has not yet been discharged and whose ownership was transferred to it by Rutas del Litoral SA (both Relats firms), in 2009, which, due to the history of the Municipality, was the first operator".

Since Panatel has not yet asked for its withdrawal, "I have tried unsuccessfully with the Director of Commerce (from El Calafate), to find out how the situation described affects us and the need and way to normalize it." 

To date, the tourist complex does not have staff in relation to dependency or permanent professional services, all the functional, administrative and financial aspects being in charge of the auditor, "hiring third parties to repair and paint the case. Care and cleaning , maintenance and night surveillance is in charge of three people hired for each of these three aspects, by Máximo Kirchner ", it was indicated,

The hotel had suffered various problems in its facilities:  raised floors, wallpaper ruined by humidity, loss of water, durlock raised from the ceiling in various environments. All the arrangements are paid with funds from the Los Sauces SA real estate agency because the hotel does not generate income and does not manage funds.