Cristina Fernández: ‘They Persecute us for Defending Equality and Social Justice’

This Tuesday, the Argentinian vice president, Cristina Fernández, during an international meeting of the Puebla Group in Buenos Aires, stated that “they persecute us because we defend equality, social justice, and the rights of workers.”

During the conference “Popular Will and Democracy: From the Military Party to the Judicial Party” held in Buenos Aires, Fernández said “they are not persecuting us because we are populists, or from the left, from the right, or from below or from above.”

“They persecute us because we equalize societies, for social justice, for the right of workers to actively participate in the net product of what they produce.” Fernández de Kirchner was Argentina’s president from 2007 to 2015. A recent court ruling, seen as a case of “lawfare” by regional experts, will prohibit her from running for public office in the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for October 2023.

At the ceremony, Kirchner was accompanied by former presidents Ernesto Samper (Colombia), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Jorge Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (Spain), and José Mujica (Uruguay). The influential world leaders took the opportunity to denounce the lawfare campaign against progressive and leftist leaders in Latin America.

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Fernández warned that one of the main characteristics of this phenomenon are smear campaigns in the media and the criminalization of politicians who prioritize the welfare of the masses.

New form of the imposition of neoliberalism
At the Kirchner Cultural Center in the capital, Fernández said that the stigmatization and persecution aim at re-imposing a neoliberal economic model, disciplining the leaders of the national and popular sectors, and instilling fear.

“They will never forgive us for what we have achieved in terms of human rights in Argentina,” Fernández said. “After the arrival of Néstor (Kirchner) to the government, we carried out a deep reconstruction of the democratic and constitutional state.”

“With him, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (Brazil), Evo, Correa, Hugo Chávez (Venezuela), and Mujica, Latin America lived the virtuous decade. It was the moment when economic and social inequality in the region was reduced the most. That’s why they persecute us,” Fernández stated.

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Fernández said that lawfare is the equivalent “of military rule against the popular governments of the 20th century.”

“It is all very unfair, but the truth always comes out,” she stated. “I am not worried that they are going to condemn me, disqualify me, or put me in jail; what matters to me is that we reconstruct a democratic and constitutional state, a country like the one we once had.”

“Courage and love for the country is what is needed today and always,” concluded Fernández.

Solidarity with Cristina Fernández
At the meeting, Rafael Correa expressed his support for the deputy president, confirming “the full support, recognition, and admiration of the Puebla Group.”

He recalled that on September 1, 2022, a miracle prevented murderous bullets from ending the life of Cristina Fernández. “It was not an isolated incident,” Correa. said. “Without excluding that it was part of a conspiracy that has not yet been revealed, the attack was the product of a permanent incitement to hatred. That poison was inoculated through the hegemonic press and its collusion with the apparatus of injustice.”

For his part, Evo Morales emphasized his country’s solidarity with Fernández: “When they don’t defeat us politically, socially or culturally, they try to do so judicially. Now the blows are of that type. As Néstor told us, we have to take care of and defend sister Cristina. United, it is possible to move forward.”

Featured image: (RedRadioVE) by Victoria Torres

Translation: Orinoco Tribune

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