The Federal Court of Criminal Cassation ratified the conviction of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in prison and disqualification from holding public office in a corruption case. The day before, the former Argentine president had stated: “We are used to persecution.” And he had targeted the three judges for their bias. He will appeal to the Supreme Court, so the sentence is not final.
This decision in the second instance was foreseeable, not only by the leader of Peronism, but by the political and media system. The two-time president (2007-2015) and former vice president (2019-2023) was not present during the reading of the ruling by Judge Gustavo Hornos. Fernández de Kirchner was in a political activity with women in the town of Moreno, province of Buenos Aires.
Those who did convene an open class on lawfareoutside the Comodoro Py judicial building, were political allies, local and foreign, such as Juan Grabois, a leader of the social movements, and Manuela D’Ávila, a politician from the Brazilian left (PCB).
Lula’s mirror
Cristina Fernández is considered by a large part of the Latin American left as a victim of lawfare, in line with what happened to the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The parliamentarians of the Workers’ Party (PT) expressed in a statement their “rejection of the political, media and judicial persecution that the former president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has suffered for several years.” And they added: “The judicial conviction is one more chapter in this persecution, whose ultimate objective is the exclusion of a popular leader from the country’s political life.”
If in Brazil the highest court recognized that Judge Sergio Moro was biased and flawed evidence was presented in the Lava Jato case for which Lula was imprisoned, in Argentina the former president described the Cassation judges with close ties to Mauricio Macri, the former president. conservative and current political ally of Javier Milei.
Fernández de Kirchner anticipated the decision of the three magistrates in a text that he published on social networks. referring to “Los copitos de Comodoro Py” – alluding to the group that tried to kill her – and their media plants. “Mariano Borinsky, who played tennis with Mauricio Macri in Olivos; Gustavo Hornos, who visited Macri in La Rosada and who is reported for sexual harassment and rape; and Diego Barroetaveña, leader of the Macrista list of judges for the Judicial Council. All of them will confirm the sentence of the Oral Court made up of other members of the same gang. Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu, who together with the prosecutor in the case, Diego Luciani, had a soccer team called Liverpool that played in a tournament organized in Mauricio Macri’s private villa. The impartiality of the judges… I owe it to you.”
‘Road Cause’
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was sentenced on December 6, 2022 by the Federal Oral Court Number 2 of the City of Buenos Aires to six years in prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office for the crime of fraudulent administration in the construction of public works in the province of Santa Cruz.
After the ruling was released, the then vice president did not aspire to any elective position in 2023, neither to president nor to parliamentarian, that is, she was left without privileges.
Lázaro Báez, a businessman friend of the deceased Néstor Kirchner, was sentenced to six years in prison under the accusation of being a necessary participant in fraudulent administration. The former owner of Austral Construcciones and client of the Kirchner family in real estate businesses in Patagonia, was the one who carried out the 51 works in Santa Cruz that were judged in the road cause.
The Kirchners’ relationship with Báez raises questions, among others, how he went from being a director of the Bank of Santa Cruz to becoming the main contractor of that province at the same time that Néstor Kirchner assumed the Presidency in 2003. Furthermore, that leads to other questions, since the businessman won most of the tenders in the Patagonian province.
The expert reports of the judicial process did not prove overcharges or exceptional delays for the construction of roads and public works in Santa Cruz.
The accusation by prosecutor Luciani was unable to find any indication of bank deposits, companies or properties linked to the Kirchner couple, nor in the hands of front men, that reflected a return for the business granted.
This Wednesday, the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation ratified Báez’s sentence and also six years in prison for the former Secretary of Public Works José López. The latter was already convicted of illicit enrichment in the case of the bags with money that he threw into a convent and was filmed in the attempt.
The former president, a lawyer by profession, defended herself against the ruling. “They condemn me for a crime that, as President, I could never have committed: that of fraudulent administration in road works, approved by Parliament in the national budgets, tendered, executed and paid for by the government of the Province of Santa Cruz and approved its accountability by the General Auditor of the Nation and the National Congress from 2003 to 2015”,
Cristina Fernández will not have to serve the sentence immediately nor will disqualification apply, because there will be an appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice. As is known, the highest court does not have deadlines. The ruling party is promoting a “clean record” law in Congress that, if successful, with this Cassation ruling Cristina Fernández would not be able to be a candidate.
Fernández de Kirchner is president of the Justicialista Party, after the electoral authority ruled out the candidacy of the Riojan governor, Ricardo Quintela. Not much internal battle, although some friendly fire. That is why the head of Peronism assured that in this new stage, the party “is going to call everyone.”
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