The vehement speech of a Peronist governor for co-participation

The governor of Santiago del Estero, Gerardo Zamora, criticized the decision of the Supreme Court to return co-participation funds to the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires in an act in which he participated with President Alberto Fernández. "If I have to go prisoner to defend federalism and Santiago del Estero, here I am", he stated during his speech.

In this sense, Zamora affirmed that the Estación Simbolar-Añatuya aqueduct, which he inaugurated this Tuesday with Alberto Fernández, "is worth a day of co-participation that was already stolen from us between (Mauricio) Macri and (Horacio Rodríguez) Larreta and that now they want to return to us steal unfairly."

In a critical tone towards the ruling of the Supreme Court in favor of the return of funds to the city of Buenos Aires for the maintenance of the police, Zamora said that the "CABA does not produce anything and has dollar numbers in red"

"Which is the province that contributes the most to the country?" he wondered, and sentenced: "They underestimate us, that is a fight that has not ended, fellow provinces." "We are going to defend federalism, without federalism there is no country or there is a very unfair country, and we are going to lose the opportunity to be a great nation," he asserted.

"This work (for the aqueduct) is worth a day of co-participation that they already stole from us between Macri and Larreta and that now they want to steal from us again unfairly, because the police are already paid elsewhere," he remarked.

And he even expressed that "poorly said co-participation, because the provinces receive co-participation, that we are 23 provinces and one city, a city cannot be given entity above the provinces."

"This is not against the people of Buenos Aires," the Santiago clarified, but he asserted that from Santiago "we will continue to love our homeland, which we love, not as from the centralism of Buenos Aires that they feel are the owners of the country they hate; we love our country and we are going to work for that and many united governors are working in that sense".

In addition, when referring to the complaints against him from Buenos Aires officials, he did not hesitate to emphasize: "If I have to go to jail to defend federalism and Santiago del Estero, I am here. I am not going to go to Uruguay", alluding to to "Pepín" Rodríguez Simón, required by justice, who has been a fugitive in that country for two years.

"Don't underestimate us; don't tell us who we are and what we have to be," he pointed out, to which he added: "Santiago del Estero and the Homeland come first."

He recalled that "in many moments they made us lower our arms when they declared us unviable provinces in the 90s, when they said we had to create regions; obviously there it seems that federalism did not matter much."

"It is a 200-year struggle; they took away part of our partnership, four provinces denounced Macri and he did not comply with the Supreme Court sentence," he said. "We have experienced all these things, but we have always been respectful, careful, because from this federalism that gave birth to this Nation, we love our country, we truly love Argentina," Zamora said.

""This is not against the people of Buenos Aires," the Santiago clarified, but he asserted that from Santiago "we will continue to love our homeland, which we love, not as from the centralism of Buenos Aires that they feel are the owners of the country they hate; we love our country and we are going to work for that and many united governors are working in that sense".