Machista violence can occur even in the inner workings of the highest power. That is the slogan that has shaken Argentines this week since it became known that Former First Lady Fabiola Yáñez denounced former President Alberto Fernández for gender violence.
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The plot that burns in Argentina already has Political consequences: Peronism, at its worst after Javier Milei’s victory, has radically distanced itself from Fernández; while the current president, who dismantled the Ministry of Women, takes advantage of the complaint to point out what he calls “progressive hypocrisy.”
The story began in the court buildings in June, but it broke out last weekend, two months later.
The courts are investigating Fernández for a corruption case linked to an insurance contracting scandal during his government, and in that process, the cell phone of the former president’s secretary, María Cantero, was analyzed.
A 2022 survey found that in Argentina one in two women experienced some act of violence in their lives and that this occurs without differences of age, class, ideology or political party.
The surprise was that a series of chats appeared there with photos of the former first lady with bruises on her eye and arm.
Yáñez, who has a son with the former president, also allegedly sent audios to Cantero in which she complained about the former president for having hit her and these messages were seized by the courts.
Now, Although the victim did not authorize it, photos of her with bruises and chats where she tells Fernández that he has been hitting her for “three days in a row” are circulating throughout the country.
In June, in light of the high-profile information he had found, federal judge Julián Ercolini, who is leading the insurance investigation, contacted Yáñez, who now lives in Spain with the couple’s young son, to find out if she wanted to file a complaint, since in Argentina a case of gender-based violence can only be brought if the victim asks for it. At first, she said no, but did not deny the facts.
Although the country learned of the political bomb on Sunday through the newspaper ClarionThe internal crisis broke out on Saturday when journalist Claudio Savoia sought to contrast the information with the former president himself through his lawyer.
Fernandez suffered a nervous breakdown and was accompanied by several of his closest friends.
“Alberto was worried about whether or not they would publish the photos,” the journalist told the radio station, confirming that Yáñez learned of the publication from the former president.
That afternoon, according to media reports, Fernández suffered a nervous breakdown and was accompanied by several of his closest friends.
On Tuesday, when the scandal had already covered up other scandals, Yáñez formally denounced the former president for physical and mental violence. She contacted the court from Madrid and asked to expand on the version she had given before. “She stated that she was suffering psychological terrorism from the accused person, as well as daily telephone harassment, given that the alleged aggressor contacted her through telephone messages, threatening her,” as can be read in a fragment of the file.
The judge ordered immediate restraining measures to prevent Fernandez from approaching her, even though they have been separated by an ocean for months since he returned to Buenos Aires after ending their relationship.
The political consequences came as fast as tweets. It was no longer just a media leak, but a complaint to the courts. Faced with the rock falling on him, he issued a statement denying everything and saying that he would not speak out in order to protect his children and Fabiola herself. “The truth of the facts is different” and “everything is false and what I am now accused of never happened.”
Those close to the former president have suggested that this is revenge from the judge because at the time Fernández denounced how several judges met with executives of Clarion in a scandal known as Hidden Lake.
A hammer blow to Peronism
However, Peronism quickly distanced itself from Fernández, who was already considered a political pariah before this. The most radical line of Kirchnerism attributes to him the failure of the previous government that ended with the election of Javier Milei.
At the end of the week, after the photos were published, Fernandez was left completely alone.
Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sent a damning tweet that crowned this distance. “(The images) not only show the beating he received, but they also reveal the most sordid and dark aspects of the human condition,” Cristina said, adding that Alberto Fernández “was not a good president.”
Pablo Touzon, political scientist and co-director of the consultancy firm Escenario, told EL TIEMPO that the former president’s attitude is predictable.
“They are going to blame him for everything that went wrong in the previous government (since Kirchnerism). It is more useful and practical since Alberto Fernández is more than finished with the complaint.”
At a time when Peronism is wondering how to reinvent itself after the debacle of the elections it lost, the accusation comes as a slap in the face. “It will deepen its crisis.
Peronism was in a catatonic state and this is presented as a great gift for Milei because it is not only a judicial issue, but a moral one,” adds Touzon. He refers to the fact that Kirchnerism has defended the cause of human rights and gender equality, which includes the fight against gender-based violence.
“This accusation is a great ideological defeat for Kirchnerism. It is as if it were destroying (overturning) everything it had proposed politically.”
Air to the government of Javier Milei
The allegation of gender-based violence gave some breathing room to the government of Javier Milei, which was involved in another scandal: it appeared just when in Argentina there was talk of a visit by several deputies to military officers who were repressors during the dictatorship.
As soon as Yáñez’s complaint was made public, the press spokesman for the Casa Rosada, Manuel Adorni, recommended that all women in the event of such attacks call the 144 line, even though Milei finished her position as the Ministry of Women.
While they pose concern and recommend that victims call 144, the reality is that the agency in charge of preventing and caring for women affected by violence has been eliminated.
“The Milei government is overreacting a reaction of indignation in a way that is, frankly, quite cynical. We do not accept double standards in any case, not even from the National Government, which has had erratic and undoubtedly regressive positions regarding the fight against gender violence since the beginning of its administration.“, said Natalia Gherardi, director of the Latin American Team for Justice and Gender (ELA), in conversation with EL TIEMPO.
“While they pretend to be concerned and recommend that victims call 144, the reality is that the agency in charge of preventing and assisting women affected by violence has been eliminated and 19 public policies are being dismantled,” she said.
In his message, Milei criticized “progressive hypocrisy” and sought to attack Kirchnerist politicians and feminist movements on two counts. “The solution to the violence that psychopaths exercise against women is not to create a Ministry of Women (…),” she wrote.
In a country with a strong feminist movement that is recognized worldwide, Fabiola Yáñez’s complaint also caused a strong impact. Representatives of different organizations spoke out to support the victim and criticize Fernández’s “use” of the movement.
The former president presented himself as an anti-patriarchal man and an ally of feminists – the Ministry of Women was created during his mandate. Ofelia Fernández, a young political leader, said that the former president “is a psychopath for having used feminism and its activists for years.”
However, as Gherardi from ELA states, “the fact that political leaders like Alberto Fernández have pretended to be committed to women’s rights by trying to make political use of a movement that does not belong to them, does not take away the relevance or significance of the struggles and demands that we as feminists have been promoting for many decades.” For her, furthermore, the fact that this case has become known speaks of the cultural change that feminist movements have pushed for.
A 2022 survey found that in Argentina one in two women experienced some act of violence in their lives and that this occurs without differences of age, class, ideology or political party..
Cristina Fernández said something similar in her tweet: “(These events) allow us to confirm, once again and dramatically, the situation of women in any relationship, whether it takes place in a palace or a hut.”
What is known about the investigation against Alberto Fernández?
The investigation is now in the hands of prosecutor Carlos Rivolo and the Specialized Prosecution Unit on Violence against Women (UFEM) who have already interviewed Fabiola Yáñez to clarify the facts and dates of the attack. It is not clear whether she was pregnant at the time of the beatings and it remains to be determined whether the incident occurred at the presidential residence or somewhere else.
On Thursday, the court announced in a statement that the details “will remain strictly confidential.”
But that statement aged quickly and badly, because that same night, the Infobae portal published the photographs of the beaten former first lady and they began to spread like wildfire.
The television station moved to the building where the former president lives in Buenos Aires and showed his balcony live or announced whether he had turned off the lights; a union leader recommended in X that the former president “shoot himself”, while a video of a radio host drinking alcohol with the former president in the Casa Rosada circulated, apparently during the strict pandemic that Fernández himself imposed on Argentines.
The week could not have been darker for Fernández. And although Yáñez has not spoken directly to any media, it has been revealed that he is in a state of anguish and shock. A feeling that is shared by Argentine society.
CATALINA OQUENDO B.
Special for EL TIEMPO
Buenos Aires
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