The Federal Court of Criminal Cassation ratified the sentence of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner to six years in prison and the ban on holding public office in a corruption case. The day before, the former Argentine president had declared: “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 predictable, not only by the leader of Peronism, but by the political and media system. The double president (2007-2015) and former vice-president (2019-2023) was not present when Judge Gustavo Hornos read the judgment. Fernández de Kirchner was participating in political activity with women from the city of Moreno, province of Buenos Aires.
Those who organized an open course on rightOutside the Comodoro Py judicial palace were political allies, local and foreign, such as Juan Grabois, leader of social movements, and Manuela D’Ávila, politician of the Brazilian Left (PCB).
Lula’s mirror
Cristina Fernández is considered by a large part of the Latin American left as a victim of the war of laws, like what happened to the current Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. The parliamentarians of the Workers’ Party (PT) expressed in a press release their “rejection of the political, media and judicial persecution from which the former president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has suffered for several years.” And they added: “The judicial conviction is another chapter in this persecution, the ultimate objective of which is the exclusion of a popular leader from the political life of the country.”
If in Brazil the highest court recognized that judge Sergio Moro was biased and that erroneous evidence was presented in the Lava Jato affair for which Lula was imprisoned, in Argentina the former president described the judges as cassation as being close to Mauricio Macri, the former conservative president. and current political ally of Javier Milei.
Fernández de Kirchner anticipated the decision of the three magistrates in a text he published on social networks. referring to “Los copitos de Comodoro Py” – alluding to the group that tried to kill her – and their media installations. “Mariano Borinsky, who played tennis with Mauricio Macri in Olivos; Gustavo Hornos, who visited Macri in La Rosada and is reported for sexual harassment and rape; and Diego Barroetaveña, leader of the Macrista list of judges of the Judicial Council. All of them will confirm the sentence of the oral tribunal composed of other members of the same gang. Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu, who, along with the prosecutor in the case, Diego Luciani, led a soccer team called Liverpool that played in a tournament held at Mauricio Macri’s private villa. The impartiality of the judges… I owe it to you.
“Cause of the road”
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 publication of the judgment, the vice-president at the time did not aspire to any elective position in 2023, neither to that of president, nor to that of parliamentarian, that is to say she found herself without privileges.
Lázaro Báez, a businessman friend of the deceased Néstor Kirchner, was sentenced to six years in prison on charges of necessary participation in a fraudulent administration. The former owner of Austral Construcciones and client of the Kirchner family in the real estate business in Patagonia, is the one who carried out the 51 works in Santa Cruz judged in the cause of the road.
The Kirchners’ relationship with Báez raises questions about, among other things, how he rose from director of the Bank of Santa Cruz to that province’s leading entrepreneur just as Néstor Kirchner assumed the presidency in 2003. to other questions, since the businessman won most of the tenders in the province of Patagonia.
Expert reports from the legal process have not proven overbilling or exceptional delays for the construction of roads and public works in Santa Cruz.
Prosecutor Luciani’s prosecution found no indication of bank deposits, companies or properties linked to the Kirchner couple, nor in the hands of nominees, which reflect a return on the granted market.
This Wednesday, the Federal Court of Criminal Cassation ratified Báez’s sentence as well as six years in prison for former Public Works Secretary José López. The latter has already been found guilty of illicit enrichment in the case of the bags of money he threw into a convent and was filmed during his attempt.
The former president, a lawyer by profession, defended herself against this decision. “They condemn me for a crime that, as President, I could never have committed: that of fraudulent administration of road works, approved by Parliament in national budgets, tendered, executed and paid for by the government of the province of Santa Cruz and approved its responsibility by the Auditor General of the Nation and the National Congress from 2003 to 2015″,
Cristina Fernández will not have to serve her sentence immediately or be disqualified, as there will be an appeal to the Supreme Court of Justice. As we know, the highest court has no deadlines. The ruling party is promoting a “clean record” law in Congress which, if successful, with this cassation decision, Cristina Fernández could not be a candidate.
Fernández de Kirchner is president of the Justicialista Party, after the electoral authority excluded the candidacy of the governor of Riojan, Ricardo Quintela. Not much internal battle, although some friendly fire. This is why the leader of Peronism assured that in this new stage, the party “will call everyone”.
