MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Sex, lies and video in Tierra del Fuego governor's race

All seemed to be rolling smoothly for Argentine president Nestor Kirchner and his new political scheme in this Sunday's Tierra del Fuego governor race, until this last week.
The two leading candidates, the incumbent and his runner up in the polls are closely aligned to Kirchner's “horizontal wide ranging” political project which promised to ensure an easy victory. The third, and very distant, was a dissident lady Deputy who belongs to the most anti-Kirchner group in Argentina.

But now following the disclosure of bribes and death threats on video and internet YouTube it's anybody's guess what could happen this Sunday, particularly when in Buenos Aires City a conservative candidate is proving President Kirchner and his political machine are not invincible. The latest scandal can be seen and heard on YouTube where the current governor Hugo Cóccaro's ticket companion Rosana Bertone describes his now running mate as a "a guy who orders the killing of people" and "a worst person you can't find". Obviously the recording belongs to the past when Ms Bertone filmed on a bed with scanty clothing, was a political enemy of Mr. Coccaro. However strangely enough when word got around of what was on YouTube internet collapsed and five cuts of the optic fiber in different Tierra del Fuego locations were discovered. Even telephone communications with the rest of Argentina were discontinued for a short while. Mr. Coccaro blamed it on his political enemies particularly runner up Ushuaia Mayor Jorge Garramuño whose polls ratings dropped when one of his city councilors was caught red hand on video pocketing a 6.000 US dollars bribe. The councilor apparently has refused to resign. Ms Garrone complained of "privacy invasion" but did not deny it was her voice and claimed the content was taken out of context, pointing her guns to Mayor Garramuño and his campaign to divert attention from his "corruption problems". To make things ever more mysterious, the person who is attributed to have filmed and recorded Ms Bertone, while they were sharing an intimate moment, also a political militant, suffered a traffic accident while traveling to Rio Grande and is hospitalized reportedly in a serious condition. "I wonder what this poor girl is going to tell her parents about the hotel video", was the short reply from Garramuño when asked about the incident. In spite of the fact that Tierra del Fuego telephone company have described the optic fiber "five cuts" as "sabotage", sources from Governor Coccaro's office said they had not been informed about the "sabotage" allegations. The third candidate in waiting is Fabiana Rios who in 2003 surprised everybody when she was elected a Deputy for Tierra del Fuego, a province known for its heavy political patronizing. That was the year Kirchner took office and a majority of Argentines wanted "to get rid of all politicians". Until the bribe and video scandals exploded Ms Rios who describes herself as Socialist was very distant from her two Kirchner candidate rivals and with no chance of a run off. However now she could become a surprise and a headache for the Kirchner administration by simply making it to the second round. Tierra del Fuego in the extreme south of Argentina and gateway to the booming Antarctic cruise industry also includes jurisdiction, according to Argentine official terminology, over the Malvinas islands since its official denomination is Provincia de Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur.