An Argentine court has sentenced the country’s former president and current vice president, Cristina Kirchner, to six years in prison. In the corruption case, the judges also barred Kirchner from holding public office for her life. However, it could be years before a legally valid sentence is issued, because the former president (2007-2015) can still appeal the first instance sentence.
Kirchner and her late husband, former President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), are said to have tendered public contracts for a friendly contractor without a tender. According to the prosecutor’s office, her company has received 80 percent of all public road construction contracts in Kirchner’s home region of Santa Cruz.
Part of the excessive construction costs then passed on to the couple. As the leader of a criminal organization, the current vice president stole about a billion US dollars from the state. The allegations concern the Kirchners’ mandate as head of state.
Kirchner denied the allegations and accused the judiciary of investigating them for political reasons. “When I first spoke here, I said the court was bending the law for political reasons. I think I was being generous there. Actually, it’s a real firing squad,” he said in his closing speech. process.
Argentina’s left-leaning government has described the investigation against Kirchner as “legality” – war by legal means. President Alberto Fernández has repeatedly supported his vice. “When politics takes hold in the courts, justice escapes through the windows,” he wrote recently on Twitter. Recently, however, he himself has called for investigations against several judges and prosecutors involved in the Kirchner case due to a joint trip to Patagonia with entrepreneurs.
Kirchner represents the left wing of the current governing coalition and is seen as the real power-shooter in Buenos Aires. Again and again she imposes his will on the government. His followers, who often come from humble backgrounds, see Kirchner as the guarantor of lavish social programs. The charismatic politician dominates the streets through social movements, trade unions and party groups such as the youth organization La Cámpora, which are loyal to her. Hardly any other female politician in Argentina is as polarizing as Kirchner: as passionately as she is loved by her supporters, her opponents hate her just as passionately.
The Argentine political landscape is highly polarized and the so-called “grieta” (split) between right and left runs throughout society. After prosecutors called for Kirchner to be jailed for 12 years, hundreds of her supporters camped out for days outside her apartment in the upscale Recoleta neighborhood in late August. On Sept. 1, she escaped an attempted attack when a man pulled a gun at her at close range, but she jammed.
