Argentina’s Cristina Fernández Sentenced to Six Years in $1bn Fraud Case – Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the vice president and former president of Argentina, has been sentenced to six years in prison and given a lifelong ban on holding public office after being found guilty in a $1 billion public works-related fraud case. Former Argentine president Fernández de Kirchner, who served two terms from 2007 to 2015, was found guilty of fraud on Tuesday. However, she is not likely to serve any prison time soon, as she has immunity due to her government positions and is expected to launch a lengthy appeals process that could take years.
A three-judge panel dismissed a second accusation of operating a criminal organization, for which a guilty finding would have increased her total prison term to 12 years. It was the first time an Argentine vice-president was convicted of a crime while in office. Fernández de Kirchner stated in a livestream after the verdict was announced that the charges against her were politically motivated. “It is clear that the idea was always to convict me,” she said. “This is a parallel state and mafia.”
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Fernández de Kirchner – who many had expected to run for president next year – also said: “I won’t be a candidate for anything, not president, not senator. My name will not be on any ballot.” The former president described the proceedings against her as “law-fare,” which political analysts in the region describe as a form of “political warfare” involving politicians, the judiciary and the media, usually with a view to smearing leftist leaders as corrupt. The verdict is certain to deepen fissures in Argentina, where the 69-year-old populist dominates the political landscape and recently survived a failed assassination attempt after her assailant’s gun apparently jammed.
“Fernández de Kirchner was accused of arranging for 51 public works contracts in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz to be awarded to a company belonging to Lázaro Báez, a friend and business associate of Fernández and her late husband, former president Néstor Kirchner, who ruled Argentina from 2003-2007.” “I think this is an important judgment that shows the robbery there was in Argentina,” Patricia Bullrich, leader of the rightwing opposition party Republican Proposal (PRO) told news outlet.
“For years, Fernández de Kirchner has been trying to confuse corruption and robbery with a political trial. A political trial is when someone is detained for their ideas. Here, there was concrete robbery.” Prosecutors said the Báez company was created to embezzle revenues through false bidding processes for projects that suffered from cost overruns – and in many cases were never completed. Báez, who was also sentenced to six years alongside Fernández de Kirchner, was convicted of money laundering in February 2021 and is currently under house arrest as he appeals his conviction.
In Argentine politics, Fernández de Kirchner is a profoundly divisive personality. She and her husband were members of the so-called “pink tide” of leftist presidents that dominated various Latin American nations at the turn of the century, with Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Michele Bachelet of Chile. Following a catastrophic economic collapse in 2001 and 2002, the Kirchners’ supporters credit them with implementing progressive economic policies that improved the lives of the poor and helped bring Argentina back to prosperity.
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“But her detractors have long accused Fernández de Kirchner of corruption, and the verdict will do little to change deeply entrenched opinions,” said Dr Sebastián Giorgi, an Argentinian semiotician who has studied discourse around the trial. “Those who already thought she was corrupt will keep thinking what they think, and those who think she wasn’t, will keep thinking the same, too,” he said. He pointed out that public trust in Argentina’s judiciary is low and the public, especially young people, are more likely to form their opinions from social media.
This verdict is the first time Fernández de Kirchner has been convicted. But she has previously been charged in numerous other cases in which she was either acquitted before the case went to trial or the cases were dismissed. These include accusations that she colluded with the Iranian government to cover up Tehran’s involvement a 1994 bomb attack, in which 85 people were killed at the AMIA Jewish cultural centre. The most recent case against her is the “Notebooks” scandal, in which she is alleged to have awarded public works contracts in exchange for kickbacks.
