Argentine Vice President criticizes Supreme Court, anticipates negative ruling against her

On Monday, July 18, Argentina’s Vice President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK), launched severe accusations against the Argentine Supreme Court of Justice and predicted a ruling against her in the trial for alleged irregularities in the concession of public works.

She said in a video broadcast through social networks that the court has plunged into a process of “decadence” since the government of Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).

The Vice-President accused the court of validating the “persecution that still continues” from the federal courts against Kirchnerist political leaders, union leaders, and “even media businessmen not aligned with the Government of Mauricio Macri”.

He also stated that the Supreme Court “became a place of permanent palace intrigues and power disputes for the Presidency of the body and the resources of the Judiciary”, a struggle that, from his point of view, culminated last September when the court elected Horacio Rosatti and Carlos Rosenkrantz -two supreme judges appointed by Macri- as president and vice-president of the highest court.

VULNERABLE POWER

According to Kirchner, the court’s current composition, with only four members, makes it “a very vulnerable body in the face of pressures from the powers that be and the media.”

“With so many dead in their closets, they have no choice but to do what they are told to do under penalty of summary execution in headlines and newscasts,” said the vice-president.

According to Kirchner, these powers aim to “intervene directly and explicitly on all magistrates”, protect certain judges appointed by Macri, “guarantee their own impunity and, fundamentally, continue with the persecution”.

“In this way, the Judiciary turned into a political party protector of Macriism and persecutor of the leaders of the different forces that oppose it, places citizens in a situation of probation,” she said.

KIRCHNER ANTICIPATES CONVICTION

In another part of her message, the vice-president questioned a decision of the Court of last June in which the highest court rejected all the appeals filed by the defense of Kirchner and the evidence requested by her lawyers in a court case related to alleged irregularities in the concession of road works during her government.

For this case, the former president and other former members of her government have been subject to an oral trial since May 2019, which recently entered the closing arguments stage.

According to Kirchner, the court’s ruling against the claims of the defense implies an “explicit and blatant bias” on the part of the members of the highest court and is “an advance endorsement for the conviction” in the trial against her, which, according to the vice-president, “has already been written” and “even signed”.

In the case, Fernández is being prosecuted for the alleged crime of illicit association and fraud to the detriment of the public administration.

The case involves alleged irregularities in the concession of 51 public works to firms belonging to businessman Lázaro Báez during the governments of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and Cristina Fernández in the southern province of Santa Cruz.

With information from BBCL