Plagiarism and partisan use of public funds: the fake alfajores tournament in Avellaneda

This weekend, the Municipality of Avellaneda carried out a crude political maneuver: it organized a fake "Argentine Alfajor Championship," copying the format of an already established and recognized private event in the country. With public resources, they set up a replica lacking legitimacy and seriousness, using residents' money to conduct electoral propaganda.
 
The event was financed with millions of pesos from the municipal budget. Meanwhile, the city faces insecurity, urban decay, and lack of services, Mayor Jorge Ferraresi decided to spend those funds on scenery, signage, and massive promotion for an event with exclusively proselytizing purposes.

The awards were given to companies that appeared as sponsors of the same event, showing the tailor-made setup and the total lack of transparency. There was no real competition. There was no professional evaluation. There were only handpicked awards for those who were part of the advertising machinery. 

Among the judges was a journalist from the pro-government channel C5N, with no experience in sensory analysis or technical training. His inclusion did not respond to any technical or gastronomic criteria. He was chosen for political affinity. Unlike real championships, where qualified specialists are invited, here media figures functional to a propaganda strategy were selected.

The event's promotion was obscene: public spaces, social media, aligned media, and municipal billboards flooded the city, all paid for with State money. This was not a cultural policy or a local development initiative: it was a partisan marketing campaign disguised as a gastronomic fair.

One of the most blatant facts was the political need for the event's "champion" to be from the southern area of Greater Buenos Aires. As if by magic, the first prize ended up in the hands of a manufacturer from that region, thus closing the perfect narrative circle for Ferraresi: a local event, a functional judge, a directed award, an invented epic.
 
However, the irregularities do not end there. Unlike any serious competition, the evaluation and data processing procedures were never released. There was no access to minutes, no technical protocol, no visible scoring criteria. Nobody knows how the entries were graded or who validated the results. In other words: there was no transparency of any kind. There was only a staged verdict.

As if that were not enough, within the organization there were people who had been removed or even expelled from other events in the field for malpractice, ethical conflicts, or operational mismanagement. These are people without credentials or track record, who now reappear shielded by the municipal apparatus to revive their old practices under a different banner.

The most revealing incident occurred on Saturday, when Ferraresi himself and several officials appeared on stage to present the awards. It was the mayor, without any sense of shame, who took the lead in a completely manipulated ceremony. The personal use of the event was exposed without any possibility of concealment.
 
This is not a mistake, nor a management blunder. This is a planned action from political power to appropriate a brand, manipulate its message, use it as an electoral banner, and displace those who, from the private sector, built with effort a real, federal, professional, and plural space.

This is an act of unfair competition, where the State plays with an advantage, with public money, with institutional structure, and with impunity. Avellaneda decided to use its machinery to steal an idea, manipulate it, distort it, and use it as a political vehicle.

This fact admits no ambiguities. This is not a "controversy." This is a political operation financed with public resources. This is an ethical, economic, and cultural fraud. It deserves to be denounced by name and surname.