Argentinian Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at a rally in Buenos Aires, November 4, 2022. Photo: HispanTV.
The vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández, explained how she is the object of judicial persecution similar to that faced by Lula da Silva and Rafael Correa.
“I think it’s a phenomenon that occurred within the judicial districts throughout the region,” she said in an interview published on Monday by the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo.
Fernández de Kirchner argued that the “judicial party” replaced the “military party” across the South American region after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Since then, several South American leaders have been the target of persecution by adversaries through judicial means, or “lawfare.”
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She mentioned the arrest of the current president of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in 2018, to prevent his possible victory in the presidential elections, and the legal assault on former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, when he had the reins of his country, and after his mandate ended.
The Argentinian politician noted how her constitutional rights have been repeatedly violated and she has been subjected to a series of accusations that she characterized as “lies.”
“When all guarantees are violated, when the judge says one thing and today says another, based on a complaint made by the government of [former right-wing president Mauricio] Macri, obviously there will be a sentence,” said Fernández de Kirchner.
The former president, along with a dozen others, are now accused of irregularities in the awarding of 51 public works between 2003 and 2015 in the province of Santa Cruz (southern Argentina), to favor the businessman Lázaro Báez, for whom the prosecutors also requested 12 years in prison and the seizure of his assets.
Prosecutor Diego Luciani requested on August 22, before the Second Federal Oral Court (TOF), a sentence of 12 years in prison and permanent disqualification from holding public office for Fernández de Kirchner in the trial that she has been facing since May 2019 for alleged illicit association and fraudulent administration of public funds.
On Tuesday, December 6, in the afternoon, the final verdict will be announced. If convicted, Fernández de Kirchner can appeal the sentence before higher judicial authorities, a process that can take years. Until the Supreme Court of Justice issues a definitive ruling, the law does not prevent her from running for public office in the 2023 general elections.
(HispanTV)
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/KW/SL
