Argentina’s Supreme Court unanimously ruled Tuesday to uphold a six-year prison sentence and lifetime public office ban against socialist former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
The court ordered that Fernández de Kirchner present herself within five working days to local authorities in Comodoro Py, Buenos Aires, to be detained. Her legal team will reportedly request house arrest, given that she is 72 years old.
Fernández de Kirchner served as president of Argentina for two consecutive terms between 2007 and 2015, succeeding her late husband Néstor Kirchner, who served as president for a single term from 2003 to 2007. The socialist husband-and-wife couple “pioneered” a left-wing Peronist type of government known as Kirchnerism. The former president, a hardline socialist, maintained deep ties with the regional authoritarian regimes of Cuba and Venezuela as well as other prominent regional leftist politicians.
Fernández de Kirchner also served as vice president during the administration of socialist former president and accused domestic abuser Alberto Fernández (no relation), which effectively placed Argentina under Kirchnerist rule for 16 of the past 20 years prior to the start of the presidency of Javier Milei in December 2023.
The former president was originally sentenced to six years in prison in December 2022 for defrauding the Argentine state of upwards of $1 billion through dozens of public works contracts granted to Argentine businessman and close friend Lázaro Báez during her two presidential terms. The case is commonly known in Argentina as the “Road Case.”
The original sentence was issued at a time when Fernández de Kirchner benefited from double immunity given her then-status as vice president and head of the Argentine Senate. The former president responded to the conviction by filing a now-unsuccessful multi-year appeal process that protected her from serving jail time even after she lost her dual immunity following the end of Alberto Fernández’s presidency.
In addition, the top court confirmed that Fernández de Kirchner must pay 84 billion Argentine pesos ($70.7 million) in damages after the original investigation found that she allowed former Public Works Secretary José López to use public funds, resulting in damages to the Argentine state coffers.
Last week, days before the Supreme Court upheld her prison sentence and lifetime public office ban, Fernández de Kirchner announced her candidacy for the July 19 Buenos Aires local legislature election. Since the top court upheld the ban, she can no longer run in the election, which would have once again granted her immunity had she been elected. Additionally, she can no longer serve as president of the leftist Justicialist Party, as Argentine law states that individuals banned from public office may not hold party office positions.
Immediately after the Supreme Court’s ruling, Fernández de Kirchner held a rally outside the headquarters of the Justicialist Party, describing the three Argentine justices as “puppets” and claiming that the ruling “crushes the popular vote” since she will not be able to run for Buenos Aires Congresswoman next month. The former president also criticized the current administration of President Javier Milei throughout her speech.
“This Argentina that we are seeing today does not cease to surprise us because to the ‘salary block’ that this government of Javier Milei has put now the ‘judicial party’ adds the block to the popular vote, a real novelty,” Fernández de Kirchner said. “This clamp on the popular vote is imposed by this triumvirate of unpresentable people that acts as a fiction of the Supreme Court — they are three little puppets that respond to natural commands far above them.”
Violent members of La Cámpora, a leftist youth organization led by Fernández de Kirchner’s son Máximo Kirchner, responded to the court ruling by storming and vandalizing the television channels Todo Noticias and Canal 13, breaking windows, doors, equipment, and vehicles, and causing damages to their respective facilities. At least one man, aged 34, was reportedly detained for his participation in the attacks against both channels.
It remains unclear at press time whether Fernández de Kirchner will serve her six-year sentence in a prison or under house arrest, as courts may grant house arrest benefits to convicted individuals over the age of 70.
According to the newspaper Clarín, Fernández de Kirchner’s lawyer Carlos Beraldi requested that the courts grant her house arrest on the grounds that the former president “knows state secrets” and “suffered a assassination attempt.”
Beraldi reportedly further requested that Fernández de Kirchner not be forced to wear an ankle bracelet and be allowed to keep her security detail during her house arrest. According to Clarín, Argentine prosecutors Diego Luciano and Sergio Mola, who participated in the original Road Case trial, requested the immediate arrest of the former President and all other individuals convicted alongside her.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
Read the full article here