A río revuelto, ganancia de pescadores

[chileno]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

"Los despojos pertenecen al vencedor" -or more informally "el ganador se queda con el botín"- points to one of the outcomes of open confrontation. The idiom "a río revuelto, ganancia de pescadores" points that whether a civil war or a family feud, those who benefit are not those who strive the most but they are probably outsiders holding a comfortable position.

This is a general Spanish idiom. It's in many books available through Google books, including "Colección de refranes, adagios y locuciones proverbiales" by Antonio Jiménez, 1828, Spain. It's available as a free E-book.

Like petty thieves that pickpocket in any kind of convoluted situation, like a street fight and prey on innocent onlookers.

[aleCcowaN]

Originally Posted by poli

In that case the pescadores are clearly the English equivalents of fat cats. The whole phrase may not be commonly used but the circumstance of the pescador certainly is.

Here's a wiki article about the term:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fat_cat_(term)

further illustration
http://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/sen.../fat_cats.html

It looks those fat cats hold specific positions in society, what makes me think more in terms of peces gordos (figuratively, big predatory fishes at the top of the food chain) or maybe it is a fat cat el que corta el bacalao (those with power to allow -or not- poor people to get their daily bread: el/la mandamás - los mandamases).

That idiom's pescadores are not specifically spotted or alluded there otherwise than as generic third parties who benefit from internal disturbance. They perfectly may be opportunistic petty criminals, like those mentioned by chileno:

Originally Posted by chileno

Like petty thieves that pickpocket in any kind of convoluted situation, like a street fight and prey on innocent onlookers.

or even those who exploit that divide et impera on an industrial scale, but it also includes circumstantial beneficiaries that are law abiding and morally oriented.

[poli]

Then, there is no matching idiom in English. I think a term that can be used is inadvertant beneficiary.

[chileno]

Originally Posted by aleCcowaN

It looks those fat cats hold specific positions in society, what makes me think more in terms of peces gordos (figuratively, big predatory fishes at the top of the food chain) or maybe it is a fat cat el que corta el bacalao (those with power to allow -or not- poor people to get their daily bread: el/la mandamás - los mandamases).

That idiom's pescadores are not specifically spotted or alluded there otherwise than as generic third parties who benefit from internal disturbance. They perfectly may be opportunistic petty criminals, like those mentioned by chileno:



or even those who exploit that divide et impera on an industrial scale, but it also includes circumstantial beneficiaries that are law abiding and morally oriented.

Oh no, those we call sharks, or even politics.