From the judicial mafia: Coup against Cristina

Although expected, we cannot calmly assume the sentence of six years in prison and disqualification for life to take up charges for alleged fraudulent administration in a public work against the Argentine vice president, Cristina Fernández. This situation has not only fueled Peronism, but also other progressive groups that have demonstrated in Buenos Aires and other cities of the South American nation since Wednesday, expressing their rejection in the face of such an unjust ruling.

Groups of Kichner supporters surrounded the headquarters of the Senate and the federal courts to express their support for the Argentine Vice President in the face of an obviously revanchist judicial decision, rigged with false testimonies and the benevolent admission of unfounded facts by three judges with close ties to former President Mauricio Macri and an opposition that has jubilantly celebrated the sentence.

The truth is that the trial was full of lies, slander and defamation, which created the perfect climate for the unsuccessful attempt against the life of the Vice President, for which four people were captured, who, inexplicably, are not in jail.

“Until September 1, I believed that (the reason for the corruption cases) was to stigmatize, proscribe, denigrate, defame, slander me, but from September 1, I realized that there may be something else behind all this, because suddenly it is like that from the judicial field, social license is given so that anyone can think and do anything,” she stressed before the Federal Criminal Oral Court 2 of Buenos Aires, before knowing the sentence, whose original request was for 12 years.

"I have it very clear, no one can think that this gang planned, devised, the intellectual authorship of what they did," said the vice president, who questioned that the lawyers of one of the detainees were "advisors" of parliamentarians from Macri's opposition coalition:

“I feel somewhat defenseless with this country and this judiciary. How would you feel, Dr. (Jorge) Gorini (one of the court judges) if the same thing happened to you?", she pointed out, shortly after reproaching that "prosecutors and judges" who judge her "play" football in La Quinta (farm) of former President Macri "and nobody seems to be surprised."

The former president also affirmed that the judges who ordered her perpetual disqualification from holding elective positions seek to remove her from the political scene.

The conviction can be appealed and will remain final when the Supreme Court of Justice decides so, a process that could take years. Politicians and analysts affirmed that, until then, the vice president could run for any popularly elected position - from a seat in Congress to the presidency - as established by law - and thus obtain privileges that prevent her arrest.

Subsequently, she condemned the court ruling that sentenced her to prison and announced that she will not compete in the 2023 general elections, destroying the hypothesis that she would seek to have privileges to shield herself from justice:

“On December 10, 2023, I will no longer have privileges, so they will be able to give the order to put me in jail... I will not be a candidate for anything, neither for president, nor for senator. My name will not be on any ballot. I finish on December 10 and I go back to my house.”

This is the first time that an Argentine vice president has been sentenced while in office. The ruling had a strong impact, since Cristina Fernández is the most relevant political figure of the last 20 years. She was a legislator and president for two consecutive terms and now vice president, in addition to being the leader of a center-left sector of Peronism with a great capacity for popular mobilization.

Translated by Sergio A. Paneque Díaz / CubaSí Translation Staff