Former Argentinian President Cristina Fernández during a judiciary hearing in August 2024. Photo: Claudio Fanchi NA/File photo.
The Federal Court of Criminal Appeals of Argentina has upheld a sentence of six years in prison and a lifelong disqualification from holding public office against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, for a case regarding irregularities in roadworks in the province of Santa Cruz.
The court confirmed the sentence this Wednesday, November 13, that an oral court imposed on her in December 2022 in the so-called Vialidad case. Local media reports that despite the conviction being confirmed, the former president will not go to prison since the sentence is not final and will be enacted only when all judicial review instances have been exhausted. This is provided for in the new Federal Criminal Procedure Code, which is so far only partially in force.
As a result, the sentence will be applied if the Supreme Court of Justice rejects the last appeal of the former president, something that could take years.
Political disqualification maneuver
Fernández, who condemned the lack of impartiality of the judges and the direct links of the members of the appellate court, Mariano Borinsky, Gustavo Hornos, and Diego Barroetaveña, with former Argentinian President Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), had warned on Tuesday that an appellate court would confirm her conviction imminently.
Cristina Fernández’s defense insists that she cannot be convicted of a crime she did not commit in relation to roadworks that were approved by Parliament itself in the national budget, and were considered, executed, and paid for by the provincial government of Santa Cruz, with accounts submitted and approved by the General Audit Office of the Nation and Congress.
Fernández said that the Vialidad case is a farce, the real objective of which is to achieve her disqualification from holding public office in perpetuity, in violation of her political rights.
She claims that the judiciary “has turned Mauricio Macri into its main beneficiary, guaranteeing his impunity and being an instrument of political persecution,” in a process more commonly known as lawfare.
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Main opposition leader
On November 5, former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was proclaimed as the new president of the Peronist Justicialist Party (PJ). This makes her the first woman to hold that position, and formalizes her role as the main leader of the opposition to the government of far-right president Javier Milei.
Political misogyny
Pagina 12 reported that at a women’s meeting in Moreno, Fernández spoke on the conviction. “When you are a woman, everything is made twenty times more difficult for you,” she said. “They not only punish me for everything I did, but also because I am a woman and they cannot stand me being right.”
“Since they can’t hit me, they do what they did today in Comodoro Py,” added the former president. However, she pointed out that the situation she is going through is not “compared to what thousands and thousands of women have had to endure” in terms of gender violence, and that she “does not see this as a sacrifice, but as an obligation of someone who has a project for the country.”
Fin. pic.twitter.com/qnsGXqTNeD
— Javier Milei (@JMilei) November 13, 2024
Milei celebrates
The far-right president of Argentina, Javier Milei celebrated the ruling against Fernández via social media. “It all comes,” reads an image posted by the far-right politician, accompanied by the text “the end” in his caption. “I remember that during the campaign we were criticized for not speaking out about Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s guilt,” he claimed in another post, “by the same people who today talk about respect for institutions.”
“Today (during this government) the Argentinian Justice confirmed the conviction and perpetual disqualification from holding public office against the former President,” he added. “Today we can say without any doubt that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is guilty of acts of corruption,” claimed the president, who incidentally has as his main advisor the former president Mauricio Macri.
(Últimas Noticias) with Orinoco Tribune content
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/JRE/AU
