Luis Barrionuevo reappeared in an act to criticize Dante Camaño, his former brother-in-law: “His days are numbered”

The fight between Luis Barrionuevo and Dante Camaño for control of the Capital Section of the Union of Tourism, Hotel and Gastronomic Workers of Argentina (UTHGRA) has no end. In fact, it seemed that she had it because Labour Judge Ana Clara Alfie suspended the elections in that branch that were scheduled for this Tuesday, 15, and left the vote that took place last December 2 firm, whose triumph was won by the brother of the national deputy Graciela Camaño.

However, in an event held yesterday at the Argentine Boxing Federation, in the Almagro neighborhood, Barrionuevo not only criticized the labor judge (“she did not read or analyze what happened in the elections,” she said) but also anticipated that “she will be displaced this week” and that “the Chamber” (of Labor Appeals) will rule against Camaño and will call to vote in the union.

“Justice stuck its tail, but on March 23 the term (Camaño) ends; his days are numbered,” said the national leader of the Gastronomics at the meeting of the list he sponsors in the Capital Sectional and headed by Humberto Ballhorst, in front of an auditorium full of uniformed militants wearing caps and t-shirts from the opposition payroll.

Despite the fierce fight he has with his former brother-in-law, Barrionuevo did not charge his inks against him. He only recalled the sanctions that he imposed against Camaño (“I kicked him out of the social work, I took him out of the national leadership and now it remains for you to take him out too,” he told those present) and accused him of appearing in the media “paying” journalists.

“He has the last sighs, the last flashes,” he predicted. If they don't want to go to elections, it's their problem. If they're cowards, screw them. Let's keep working and accompanying, let's not lower our arms because justice is going to fail and we, from the National Electoral Board, are going to call elections and we are going to try to make them in this month of March.”

Before Barrionuevo, Ballhorst, the former director of the Camaño union who put together an opposition list, spoke: “We are going to fight until the end,” he said, “and we are not going to take a step back until what thousands of gastronomics want arrives, the elections. If they have to come and win, let them win, and if they lose, let them hand over the guild to us, as appropriate.”

The opposition candidate was much tougher than his political chief against Camaño: he called the leader of the Capital Gastronomic Sectional “miserable” and accused him of abandoning workers during the period of mandatory quarantine due to COVID-19. “In a pandemic we live on the State. They left us lying around and we're not going to forgive that because the union is rich, but they didn't attend any workers, they never gave anyone a bag of food or a remedy,” he said.

“We're not going to stop. They (for the sector that Camaño leads) want to win at a desk a fraudulent election that we all know did not exist,” said Ballhorst, amid cheers. An election with 40,000 workers able to vote and they want to have a fraudulent electoral act validated with 3,800 votes.”

The former Secretary of Organization of the Buenos Aires Gastronomic Section, who left his post to compete against Camaño, stressed that “for seven years we have been trying to change history and be able to give the worker more health, more salary, give his family more protection and end work in black, which is 40% in Federal Capital ”.

As Infobae reported, Barrionuevo and Camaño broke up in 2021 a trade union and political society that was over 40 years old after the author of the phrase “Nobody makes money working” separated from his wife, Graciela Camaño. The discrepancies between the former brothers-in-law were aggravated by mutual accusations: near Barrionuevo they say that there were discussions because Camaño has management problems, lost delegates and closed the union in the pandemic, while in the environment of the head of the Buenos Aires subsidiary they talk about differences in the management of the union funds from Barrionuevo and warn that the gastronomic chief wants to keep the bank deposits of the Capital section of about $40 million.

Graciela Camaño, estranged from Barrionuevo after 45 years of marriage, took sides with her brother when she posted on October 14 on her Twitter account a photo in which she is together with Dante and a very suggestive text: “I visited the CABA Gastronomic Section. We remember beautiful times with my dear friends. All the strength for the next electoral process, you are good and honest union leaders. I have no doubt that the affiliates will appreciate the effort.”

The elections in the Gastronomic Union were held on December 2 throughout the country. Barrionuevo was re-elected nationally (at the head of a list in which his daughter Sandra, a gastronomic entrepreneur who is the result of a previous marriage, was a candidate for Social Action Secretary), while in the Capital Sectional the vote ended in scandal: both lists were accused of having made maneuvers to win and to have brought barrabravas to the trade union headquarters of Salta to 1300.

The problem started when, according to Barrionuevo, prosecutors on the Ballhorst list wanted to join the union to control the vote and the staff of the Capital Sectional prevented them from doing so. “They fenced, they did not allow our prosecutors to enter and some barrabvas dressed in yellow t-shirts took the ballot boxes out a back door; it was a sucker,” he denounced. According to the national head of UTHGRA, there were two observers from the Ministry of Labor and a notary who accredited the irregularities and that is why the union's national electoral board - aligned with him - suspended the Buenos Aires elections and decided to intervene the capital electoral board. From there came a new call to vote on March 15.

Camaño, for her part, confirmed her victory in the elections and Judge Alfie endorsed her position. “The election of the CABA Section of UTHGRA was suspended because it was considered a serious irregularity that the prosecutors on one of the lists had not been allowed to accompany the ballot box. However, I do not notice that the above circumstance is of the seriousness necessary for the determination of anything less than the suspension of the election,” the judge considered in her judgment of 2 March. She is the same judge who, according to Barrionuevo, will be removed from the case this week and whose sentence will be rectified by the House. The fight, apparently, has no end. As happens in any family when the reasons for a confrontation are mixed.

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