Argentine judiciary upholds prosecution of Cristina Fernández for alleged bribes

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – On Wednesday, Argentina’s highest criminal court upheld the prosecution of Vice President Cristina Fernández in the case opened against her for alleged bribery and aiding and abetting 27 cases of passive corruption.

The former president, against whom several court cases are pending, faces, in this case, the records of driver Oscar Centeno, in which he reported a bribery scheme in exchange for public works, allegedly directed by the Kirchner couple.

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The “bribery notebook” is a record kept for ten years by the chauffeur in charge of rides for Deputy Minister Roberto Baratta. The notebook records the trips with his boss through Buenos Aires, during which he carried bags full of cash. The period in which these trips took place was during the governments of Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007) and Cristina Fernández (2007-2015).

The notebooks record the amounts, routes, and locations of pickup and delivery of briefcases of cash in dollars corresponding to bribes used to award public contracts, all under the watchful eye of Julio de Vido, the Minister of Planning throughout the Kirchner administration (2003-2015).

In 2018, the notebooks were made public describing the former president as the head of an illegal association and an accomplice in 27 cases of passive bribery, for which she faces the confiscation of ARS 1,500 million (US$14,000). She has been waiting for the start of the hearing since 2019.

The Federal Criminal Chamber had opposed the pre-trial detention initially imposed on the defendant, but today rejected her efforts to overturn the trial, concluding the charges against the acting vice president by two votes to one, according to La Nación newspaper.

Fernández has consistently defended her innocence in both this and other proceedings, claiming she was the victim of political persecution by people linked to former President Mauricio Macri, who replaced her as head of state in December 2015.

Even Argentina’s current president, Alberto Fernández, defended his vice president. He appeared before Federal Oral Tribunal 2 as a witness against the accusations made by Cristina Fernández regarding alleged illegal concessions in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz involving her husband, Néstor Kirchner.

In response to the accusations, the president said he was surprised by the importance of the case and that the decisions were political, not legal.

When asked, Fernández denied having “definitely” seen actions in favor of public works projects in Santa Cruz. He also said he did not know that previous presidents had diverted hundreds of millions of Argentine pesos in favor of the Austral Group or that they had instructed ministers in the allocation of funds.

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