The private secretary of former President Alberto Fernández, Maria Canterowill tell what he knows before the court, this Thursday. He will confirm that he received messages from Fabiola Yanezex-partner of the former president of Argentina, via WhatsApp. She will confirm that the then first lady told her about episodes of gender violence. And she will confirm that she asked her to resist and that she told Yáñez not to let any “son of a ****” sadden her, according to three sources close to the woman. The Nation (Argentine newspaper belonging to the Grupo Diarios de América -GDA-), separately.
According to the criteria of
Summoned as a witness – and therefore obliged to tell the truth – Cantero will clarify that she was neither a close friend of Yáñez nor a confidant. They only exchanged messages periodically about the pregnancy of the then first lady, about birthdays, or about gifts they sent each other or about decoration. But she will also make it clear that Yáñez told her about several episodes that had occurred at the Quinta de Olivos, which she did not usually go to, except for exceptional reasons.
“What she knows is what is on WhatsApp and she will confirm that those messages are authentic and that she received them at that time,” said one of her close associates, who estimated that the challenge for investigators will be elsewhere. “She worked at the Government House, from noon until Alberto left, whether at 5 pm or midnight, so she will not be able to attest to what apparently happened in Olivos. She never saw Fabiola with bruises, although the work or social situation did not exist for her to see her either.”
Fernández’s assistant for thirty years will also maintain that Yáñez’s comments surprised her, and that this explains some of her responses on WhatsApp, such as when she told the first lady that Fernández’s behavior was “bad” and that she did not defend him, although she then wrote to her that her boss “is not like that” and that “something is happening,” and then put herself at Yáñez’s disposal. She even confided to him that she had suffered from “an animal” when she went to live in Buenos Aires, in a “hell” that lasted four years.
She worked at the Government House, from noon until Alberto left, whether at 5 pm or midnight, so she will not be able to testify about what apparently happened in Olivos. She never saw Fabiola with bruises, although the work or social situation did not exist for her to see her.
Cantero will also argue that she was not obliged to report to the courts or to any agency specialising in gender violence what Yáñez confided to her in those WhatsApp messages. She will maintain this, even when her own lawyers confirmed to her that she, as the president’s private secretary, fell into the category of public servant. She will argue that these were episodes that the first lady herself should have reported.
“Why should Maria have denounced what Ercolini himself did not do?” asked one of those sources. The Nationreferring to federal judge Julián Ercolini, who discovered the messages and photos that Yáñez sent to Cantero via WhatsApp when he accessed the content of the cell phones of Cantero and her husband, Héctor Martínez Sosa, during the development of another criminal investigation. Which one? The one that addresses the insurance contracts that Martínez Sosa and others brokers achieved with the public sector during the Fernández presidency.
“I remind you that Ercolini knew about the possible episodes of violence, he asked Yáñez if she wanted to report them, she first replied that she did not and Ercolini filed that file,” insisted the source. “So why did María have to report what Yáñez told her on WhatsApp, when Yáñez herself did not show any determination to report it?”
Cantero has already received the formal summons to testify in the federal courts of Comodoro Py, this Thursday. She and Martínez Sosa maintain permanent dialogues with their lawyers and spokespeople. They receive advice in duplicate: regarding everything that Yáñez denounced and that they have her as an interlocutor on WhatsApp with the then first lady, and regarding everything that came to light about the contracting of policies with different areas of the national State and that has her, eventually, as an accused.
Between fear and suspicion, meanwhile, Alberto Fernández’s inner circle now distrusts everything and everyone. “María was not Fabiola’s confidant. Why did she send her those messages? And why didn’t she delete them?” questioned one of the former president’s favorite bishops, in dialogue with The NationThe environment wishes the best; it expects the worst.
The answers come spontaneously from those around Cantero. “Ask Fabiola why she told María that she didn’t delete those images because she never deleted anything from her cell phone since she bought it. There is that, as well as messages with her husband from 2016 or earlier,” replied a close friend.
At 57, Cantero has earned a reputation for being “intense” and “characterful,” with a personality that can at times be “overwhelming,” “complicated,” “explosive,” and “unpredictable,” according to six former officials and close associates who have been dealing with her for years when asked by The Nation. And she is “angry”, “upset” or “hurt”, according to different interlocutors, with the man who was her boss for decades. She feels that he “threw her to the beasts”, as he did before with Yáñez after the photos of the party at Quinta de Olivos were released in August 2021.
The ‘brokers’ scandal
Speaking to the press, Fernández opened a space between himself and his assistant when the brokers scandal broke out and doubts focused on Cantero’s conduct. “I don’t believe that María did that. I don’t know for a fact, but if she did, she overstepped her bounds,” said the former president, before stringing together several contradictory sentences. “I know María very well. She’s not capable of doing that. But I want to clarify that I don’t put… that I put my hands in the fire for myself. But this is not meant to be a disqualification of María. I know María and my answer is: I don’t believe that María said or did that. And well, if she did it, then she overstepped her bounds.”
The chats that Cantero and Martínez Sosa exchanged during those days and that the court recovered reflect the annoyance of both at Fernández’s statements. She seemed hurt and upset. “I hope it doesn’t occur to him to call me.” [a] Alberto”, she wrote to “Hecky”, her partner, and then lamented that “Alberto gave her grass [a los periodistas] so that they continue [cuando] “The topic was coming up.” He said he was “indignant” with “the idiot,” who was appearing on La Red radio at that moment. And she, after that radio conversation, added: “My heart hurts.”
At this time, Martínez Sosa tells his own people that he is calm about everything that concerns him, but worried about his wife. He maintains that he is waiting to be summoned to testify in the judicial investigation into the brokers to explain each of the policies, to clarify that he never closed any deal with Anses and that the operation that he did close with the Gendarmerie was beneficial for that force.
Martínez Sosa also swears among his close associates that he never gave money to Fernández, with the sole exception of the money that has been recorded for years in the former president’s sworn statement, “that he lent her and that Fernández never returned.” But he is worried about María, because she does not deserve the “ball of shit that was thrown at her head.”
In this regard, Cantero will have to appear before Judge Ercolini twice. In the investigation into the insurance brokers, she will be questioned, accused of acting as an intermediary alongside her then boss Fernández in the business deals that her husband concluded with various State agencies and security forces. And in the case of gender violence, she will be a witness.
The two judicial paths will be very different. To begin with, because in the investigation into the brokers’ business, when she is summoned to testify, she will be able to refuse to testify, answer only a few questions or even lie, without this being taken against her. But in the case of gender violence, she will have to testify as a witness under oath to tell the truth and she will not be able to refuse to tell what she knows, nor lie, under threat of facing a charge of false testimony.
This worries the former president’s inner circle. “María is quite a character, capable of anything. From confronting a minister to ask him for something in the anteroom of the presidential office or interrupting Alberto while he was talking to someone important, opening the door to the office without asking, or retaliating in front of anyone,” recalled a former minister who agreed to talk with Alberto. The Nation about that management.
HUGO ALCONADA MON
THE NATION
ARGENTINA
#Alberto #Fernándezs #private #secretary #plans #testify #gender #violence #case #president #Argentina