The president of Argentina, Alberto Fernández, went to a court in Buenos Aires on Tuesday summoned to testify as a witness in a trial that puts the vice president on the bench Cristina Fernandez de Kirchnerprosecuted for alleged irregularities in the concession of road infrastructure works during her terms as president (2007-2015).
(Read: Prosecutor in Argentina asks for an oral trial for Cristina Fernández)
The trial focuses on irregular concessions in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz in favor of the Austral groupowned by Lázaro Báez, a close collaborator of the late former president Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and already in prison for alleged money laundering since 2016.
(Don’t stop reading: The fracture in Peronism that revealed the crisis in the Argentine Government)
Surrounded by great expectations and a strong security operation, the president arrived at the Comodoro Py street courts to appear before the Federal Oral Court 2which since 2019 hosts the hearings in which his political partner and other defendants are tried.
The current head of state comes to testify for having been head of the Cabinet of Ministers of Kirchner and his widow, between 2003 and 2008.
This appearance was requested by the vice president herselfwho is prosecuted in various cases related to her years as president, as part of her defense strategy, just as she asked her other former chiefs of staff to testify, considering all of them responsible for signing the budget items destined for the work public from 2004 to 2015.
For this reason, they were also summoned to appear as witnesses, among others, Juan Manuel Abal Medina, Aníbal Fernández and Jorge Capitanich (who already testified days ago) and Sergio Massa, current president of the Chamber of Deputies and who will do so soon.
Fernández denied arbitrariness in the adjudication of public works during the mandate of Cristina Kirchner (2007-2015) when testifying this Tuesday in a case that investigates alleged acts of corruption involving her vice. “There was never an arbitrary distribution of funds,” said the president before the Oral 2 federal court, which analyzes whether there were irregularities in the concession of public works in the province of Santa Cruz (south).
The president rejected the possibility of presenting a brief and answered questions for almost three hours as a witness proposed by the defense in his capacity as Kirchner’s chief of staff when she was president, in a hearing that was broadcast on internet platforms.
The president pointed out that it is “impossible” for a president to follow the details of the procedures involved in the concession and execution of public works, as well as the application of budget items, which is in charge of each ministry.
“It is impossible to know the adjudication process, a president can know great numbers, how the budget is being executed but not how each project is evolving, what Néstor (Kirchner), Cristina and I also do is have regular meetings to find out how great works evolve,” he explained.
“In this case there is a kind of fantasy that two people got together and said: ‘let’s send money to someone,'” he argued before the prosecutor. Asked whether as the Kirchners’ chief of staff he ever received a presidential order to reallocate items in favor of works for the province of Santa Cruz, the president replied “never.”
Fernández clarifies how he met the Kirchners
There is no rule that says how public works are distributed.
“I met Néstor Kirchner first, back in 1996, 1997. He was governor of Santa Cruz, I was executive vice president of the Bapro group […] Through Néstor I met Cristina, almost immediately after, and with her we also forged a political bond and a good relationship beyond the differences that are public,” Fernández replied to the lawyer’s first question, precisely from Kirchsner.
“I am very interested in what we are discussing in this trial” continued the president, addressing the lawyer of his vice president, Carlos Beraldi. “There is no rule that places limitations on how the cost of public works is distributed. That is, in my opinion, a decision of a political nature that cannot be judged,” concluded the president.
On how public works are distributed in the country, Fernández referred: “There is no rule that says that a province gets an amount of money for the inhabitants it has,” said the President.
Also the president was forceful talking about the distribution of budgets. “From the exercise of the profession it is not known how the approval of a budget works, it is not the decision of a President who decides how the money is spent.”
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from EFE and The Nation (GDA)
ARGENTINA
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