Argentina: Cristina Fernández is disqualified for alleged corruption

Buenos Aires. As warned by former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the National Court of Cassation confirmed this Wednesday the sentence of six years in prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office against the Peronist for the Road Traffic case, which refers to the purchase of a public work in the southern province of Santa Cruz.

The sentence and its ratification were given without any evidence, because the conviction was based on false news published in the mass media of power, which is a true legal scandal, as has happened with other rulers in our region, such as in Brazil, with Lula da Silva.

More than 250 presidents, former presidents and political leaders immediately expressed their solidarity with Fernández de Kirchner, through a letter in which they repudiated the judicial ruling of judges Mariano Borinsky, Gustavo Hornos and Diego Barroetaveña, all of the so-called Judicial Party, by denouncing that It is a practice of lawfare “to outlaw it and install hate speech.”

Supported, among others, by presidents Xiomara Castro, of Honduras; Luis Arce, from Bolivia, or the former leaders Rafael Correa, from Ecuador and from Colombia, Ernesto Samper, the signatories also rejected the “political, media and judicial persecution to which they are being subjected.”

They pointed out that “there is no doubt that the case is part of a systematic plan of persecution, articulated by political, media and judicial sectors,” highlighting that the case was plagued by procedural and legal irregularities that caused a serious impact on constitutional guarantees. of the former president, especially her right to defense in court.”

They argued that the most dramatic consequence of this political persecution was “promoted by the hegemonic media, in the attempted assassination of September 1, 2022.”

The ruling is not final because there is an appeal, as a last resort, for the intervention of the Supreme Court of Justice, whose judges also belong to the Judicial Party, in addition to the open intervention of the US embassy.

The former president was not expected to go to prison now and even next year she may be a candidate in the legislative elections of 2025, and nor can perpetual disqualification from holding public office be imposed on her, because it only becomes effective when the sentences become final. , so there is still a way to go.

Likewise, she could not be convicted of the charge of illicit association, in which she was deemed to be the “boss” of it, along with a list of eight former officials, and a businessman from the province of Santa Cruz, who were also convicted this year. day.

This case had been closed due to a complete lack of evidence and was opened under the government of former president Mauricio Macri.

The time for the court to act is unlimited, even if it ratifies this sentence, the file must be returned to the Federal Oral Court 2 of the Comodoro Py courts.

The Supreme Court is not in its best moment and in addition to having demonstrated impartiality in recent years, it cannot be forgotten that former President Macri, in January 2016, less than a month after assuming power, appointed two judges by decree Carlos Rosenkrantz and Horacio Rosatti, which was quickly denounced as illegal and passed through the Senate, where it managed to prevail narrowly over the opposition.

Today the president, Javier Milei, commented that he does not rule out appointing by decree Ariel Lijo and Manuel García Mansilla to join the Supreme Court, which will remain with only three judges, due to the retirement of one of them.

Both judges are rejected by the opposition, not only from Unión por la Patria (Peronist), but by other sectors, and numerous investigations have appeared that denounce the lack of merit to assume these positions.

While Milei celebrated the conviction of the former president, whom he referred to as “guilty of acts of corruption,” he boasted on social networks about the influence that his government has on justice. “Everything comes,” he said in a message, adding: “Today we can affirm, without a doubt, that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is guilty of acts of corruption. End”.

Meanwhile, Cristina remained at the Instituto Patria party headquarters, where a number of militants attended and applauded her.

Afterwards, she met in the suburban neighborhood of Moreno with 400 women, to whom she said: “When you are a woman, everything is made twenty times more difficult for you. “Not only are they punishing me for everything I did, but also because I am a woman and they don’t believe that I am right.”

“How can they not give me a blow, they do what they did today in Comodoro Py,” he added.

She also recalled that the situation she is going through “alongside what thousands and thousands of women have had to endure” in terms of gender violence, this “I do not see as a sacrifice, but as an obligation of someone who has a country project”.