• The correspondent's view Subsidized isolation in the poor areas of Buenos Aires
  • Editorial.Argentina: The Kirchners and corruption

The coronavirus pandemic is far from being controlled , the numbers of the economy are scary and the renegotiation of the debt seems bogged down, but Alberto Fernández got fully into an issue as necessary as it is strikingly inappropriate in today : thoroughly reform the questioned justice Argentina . It surprised many, but it could not be otherwise, the president had to take that step, because justice is a core part of the agreement by which Cristina Kirchner installed him as a candidate for the head of state.

This Monday, when a key judicial process in which the current vice president of Argentina is accused resumes after 150 days of pause, everything was even clearer than it had already been. Cristina is designated as the head of an "illicit association" in a process centered on the concession of public works. Lazaro Báez, named as the frontman for the Kirchners, suspiciously received 51 contracts to become the most powerful businessman in the sector. With an addition: many of the works that were to be built were not completed, there are examples of this in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz - fief of the Kirchners - with roads that abruptly stop in the middle of the steppe. This process is key for others waiting, those of alleged money laundering through hotels of former presidents in El Calafate , the town that allows access to the impressive Perito Moreno Glacier.

The Judiciary was paralyzed for more than four months due to the pandemic, and the resumption of the oral trial against the two-time president saw defendants and witnesses connected through the "zoom" application, although not Cristina Kirchner. The President of the Senate was represented by her lawyer, Carlos Beraldi. He and other defenders of the more than 20 defendants in the case raised different nullities of the process, arguing that it is not legal to conduct the hearings online.

A prestigious lawyer, Beraldi is today a big problem for Fernández, because it became the argument for the opposition to give a resounding "no" to the justice reform proposed by the president and for the Supreme Court to take the proposal as who hears it rain "It is rude," said several opposition leaders when they learned that the Argentine president appointed Beraldi, the vice president's lawyer, as one of the 11 members of the committee that will advise the government on the project to reform the Judiciary and the Court. Supreme. And there the possibility of any consensus ended.

Fernandez bewildered by doing what he said he would not do on the campaign trail, and often in the best interests of his vice president. According to political analyst Eduardo Van der Kooy, the president's changes in position "are beginning to erode the value of the word and trust , keys to political exercise."

The current president was the head of the Cabinet (a kind of prime minister) of Cristina Kirchner for eight months of his first government. He resigned in 2008, and for a decade he dedicated very hard disqualifications and accusations of enormous political and judicial significance. Today, Fernández is another, and joins the theory of "lawfare" used by several former leaders of the Latin American center-left : his judicial problems are driven by his political rivals.

"One arrest warrant is stacked on top of another. A judge and another judge, a prosecutor and another prosecutor compete to see who is the first to quench the republican thirst that cries out to jail every populist on the loose. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (. ..) and Rafael Correa in Ecuador were some of the most coveted figures in this media-judicial crusade, "argues Fernández in La Justicia Accusada , a book with his signature that goes on sale this Wednesday. " What it is about is to observe that the articulation that is hidden in each one of them is not accidental , but responds precisely to this new political logic of the Judicial Power: the 'lawfare'".

What can happen? Probably the usual thing in Argentina: judicial processes that last forever amid a tie of powers, where neither the executive nor the judicial force prevail, while the legislature looks inert. Former President Carlos Menem can attest to this, seeing the various houses in which he has been involved fall . He is also protected by the privileges derived from being a member of the Senate, the chamber that Cristina presides over.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

Know more

  • Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
  • Alberto Fernández
  • Argentina

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