This article focuses on the ways in which a candidate running for city councillor and representing the Peronist party organized the distribution of public resources (social plans and food programs) in La Matanza, a district in the west of Greater Buenos Aires, during the 2005 election campaign. The first part describes the personal trajectory of the candidate and some of the neighbours dependent on him. The second part examines how this leading figure rallied election campaigners and the meaning invested in their behaviours during a series of events including the opening of a 'soup kitchen' and the election day itself. The text also identifies the constraints imposed on these actors and the implications associated with their compliance (or failure to comply) with mutual obligations. This analysis enables a clearer understanding of the dynamics and complexity of the processes regulating vast political circuits in which State resources are redistributed in exchange for votes on the outskirts of Greater Buenos Aires.
Clientelism; Politics; Campaigners; Neighbours; Visit; La Matanza