OAN Staff Abril Elfi
4:00 PM – Wednesday, November 13, 2024
Argentina’s Federal Cassation Chamber has upheld the conviction of former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in relation to her fraud case.
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Kirchner, who most recently served as vice president from 2019 to 2023 after serving two terms as president from 2007 to 2015, was convicted of defrauding the state and was later sentenced in December 2022 to six years in prison.
However, the Supreme Court is still open to hearing appeals in this case.
During her presidency, Kirchner was accused of corruption in her distribution of public works awards.
In 2022, she was found guilty for the first time and given a six-year prison sentence along with a lifetime ban from holding public office. According to the court, she had arranged for 51 public works contracts in the province of Santa Cruz to be awarded to her personal friend Lázaro Báez’s business.
On Wednesday, Kirchner tried to argue that the court’s ruling to enforce her sentence was a penalty for being a woman.
“When you’re a woman, everything is 20 times harder, and if they punish me for anything, it’s not just for everything I’ve done, but also because I’m a woman. They can’t stand to argue with a woman and not be able to prove themselves right,” Kirchner said during a meeting in the town of Moreno, reported by Argentina-based outlet EFE.
She has also historically butted heads with Javier Milei, the Libertarian president of Argentina who happens to be a staunch Donald Trump supporter. According to her, the Milei administration’s economic management has caused a “brutal drop” in economic activity, making Argentina more costly in U.S. dollars than other developing nations.
Meanwhile, Milei gleefully responded to the news of Kirchner’s fraud conviction being upheld.
“Today (under this government), Argentine justice confirmed the sentence and perpetual disqualification from public office of the former president. Today we can say without any doubt that Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is guilty of acts of corruption,” Milei stated.
On Wednesday, Judge Gustavo Hornos declared that he and his colleagues, Mariano Borinsky and Diego Barroetaveña, had reached a unanimous decision. Kirchner was not present.
Kirchner laid out her case of innocence during a five-page text, where she claimed that as president, she was unable to carry out the fraudulent handling of road work contracts for which she was convicted of and sentenced.
“The funding for these works was included in provincial budgets and approved by Parliament. They were later bid on, executed, and paid for by the Santa Cruz province government,” her statement read. Kirchner goes on to say that all expenses were approved by the general state auditor and Congress, and that no chief of staff, the individual “constitutionally in charge of executing the budget,” has ever been accused of this crime.
“There is no redemption from ridicule,” she added.
She went on to accuse the judges and prosecutors of seeking to exclude her from electoral politics by imposing the lifelong ban on holding public office.
In 2022, Kirchner also faced an assassination attempt, which led to widespread protests in her honor.
Following former President Alberto Fernandez’s removal from his party position due to charges of abuse against his wife, the first lady, earlier this year, Kirchner was nominated to head the Peronist opposition Justicialista Party. Kirchner was vice president at this time.
In 2025, Argentina will hold legislative elections, however, if a bill that bans those convicted of corruption from holding public office passes, Kirchner’s political future could become much more complicated.
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