Personal disputes, jealousy and business, the historic fight of the Rodríguez Saá brothers in San Luis

They will not be candidates this Sunday and their images do not appear in the spots or in the streets of the capital of this province, although the fight between the brothers does not stop. Alberto and Adolfo Rodríguez Saá had already faced each other at the polls in 2019, at that time the dispute generated suspicion and was doubted, but after four years the two leaders who had built a hegemony that looked unbeatable in San Luis did not speak again.

"I'm in the prime of my life, I don't have any worries." In private, Adolfo sought to be relaxed in the run-up to the election. Expelled from the PJ by Alberto, in a bid with episodes of scandal that included the seizure and eviction of the party headquarters, the senator will support the opposition Claudio Poggi, the only governor elected – in 2011, as the dolphin of the clan – since the return of democracy without the surname Rodríguez Saá.

Without the possibility of going for a new term, Alberto again blocked the way to his brother and anointed as a candidate Jorge Fernández, former member of the Supreme Court of Justice and former mayor of Tilisarao. Once the Slogans Law is reinstated in 2022, Adolfo will have his own candidates and his face printed on the ballots of the Unidos seal within the Cambia San Luis front, led by Poggi.

The versions about the origin of the fight multiply in this city with physiognomy and customs of the people, from personal reasons, business disputes and misgivings in the family clan between Gisela Vartalitis -wife of Adolfo-, Albertito -the son of the governor, Minister of Public Works- and the sister of both, Zulema, who was on the side of the current president.

The Rodríguez Saá brothers in 2015, the last election to executive positions in which they were allies. In the celebration appears Claudio Poggi, at that time governor.

In the political field, the break started in 2017. In the national legislative elections of that year, the Rodríguez Saá overcame a defeat of almost 20 points in the PASO and won the general elections by almost 10 points, without qualms about explicit clientelism, from the distribution of appliances to the organization of parties of 15.

The ticket for the Senate was headed by Adolfo, with Alberto – at that time governor – as first alternate, with the prospect that in 2019 they would exchange the roles. The agreement was not fulfilled and the duo that had managed the province in tandem since 1983 broke down.

The duel four years ago was won by Alberto and won his re-election with 42%. Adolfo came third with 22%, behind Poggi's 34%. "I couldn't convince even my friends that the fight with my brother was real," the senator would say to justify the defeat.

Jorge Fernández, the official candidate chosen by Alberto Rodríguez Saá, at a campaign event.

Jealousy, competition and criticism

Governor of this province from 1983 to 2001, Adolfo separates those 18 years from the efforts of his brother. Alberto had said he would conduct St. Louis differently. "He fulfilled it. He abolished industrial policy, employment policy, housing policy and today San Luis is among the poorest provinces in Argentina," it worked as a reply since the confrontation broke out.

The struggle in this electoral turn generates a crossing of positions. Adolfo was associated with Poggi, a former Peronist but since 2017 an ally of Mauricio Macri and now supported by Horacio Rodríguez Larreta and Patricia Bullrich. An eventual triumph will be capitalized by Together for Change. Alberto's arming in Unidos por San Luis encompasses Kirchnerism and La Cámpora.

In the Senate, however, the current governor led to the rupture of the Frente de Todos bloc with the detachment of Eugenia Catalfamo, Fernández's vice presidential candidate on Sunday. Alberto completed this staging with a photo with Juan Schiaretti.

Claudio Poggi with running mate Ricardo Endeiza, in a campaign caravan in St. Louis.

Adolfo is part of one of the two blocs aligned with Cristina Kirchner. "This agreement is absolutely provincial, without commitment to the national. On Monday we will see," he told his team about the agreement with Poggi the former president during a week in December 2001. A few years ago the diagonals had been reversed. Adolfo kept his distance from Kirchnerism and Alberto, after half of Macri's term, launched the slogan "There is 2019" and approached the former president.

Even with most of the apparatus controlled by Alberto, Adolfo shows confidence in a Poggi triumph: "It's not going to reach them, we're going to beat them." If his prognosis materializes, the senator will at most participate in the celebration for a while and will leave early to avoid the photo with the national referents of Together for Change.

SAN LUIS (SPECIAL ENVOY).