Photo: Pagina 12
By: Roberto Morejón
To the jubilation of President Javier Milei and other right-wing leaders, Argentina's Supreme Court confirmed the six-year prison sentence and perpetual disqualification from holding public office for former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.
In a record-time decision supported by a controversial legal tool, the Court rejected the extraordinary appeals filed by the defense and avoided pronouncing on the former president's innocence or guilt, but upheld the sentence handed down by a lower court.
She was accused of fraudulent administration to the detriment of the state as part of the so-called Vialidad case, although a local court had dismissed the case because it did not see any crime.
Jurists, social organizations, and political groups have criticized the ruling as absurd. In Argentina, the epilogue of an unabashed lawfare is unfolding.
As happened in Ecuador with Rafael Correa and in Brazil with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, right-wing forces in Argentina, including Macri and the economic elite, have surrounded Cristina Fernández de Kirchner since she was on the ballot for the Buenos Aires legislative elections in September.
For the former president, who has faced adversity with great courage, the Supreme Court's decision is the culmination of more than a decade of judicial persecution.
For her, the sentence implies an attempt to dismantle the popular organization in Argentina that responds to the actions of three judges. She described them as "monigots" because they react to the economic elite.
According to the two-time president, this same power headlined: "The bullet that did not come out, the ruling that will come out."
As expected, the Justicialist Party, of which Cristina is the leader, strongly condemned the ruling, and thousands of people protested in several cities.
La Pampa's governor, Sergio Ziliotto, was clear that the ruling further discredits the state by prioritizing political interests over its constitutional role.
Many Argentines believe that equal action should be taken before other institutions, such as the UN Human Rights Council, as well as protests in the streets.
