Cristina Fernández de Kirchner intends to present herself before the Comodoro Py federal courthouse to begin serving her prison sentence on Wednesday – and the former president’s arrival will be accompanied by a mass demonstration.
With a slogan of “Argentina con Cristina,” several Kirchnerite movements have called for a large mobilisation to support the former president at the courthouse in Retiro, Buenos Aires. Leaders stress the protest will be peaceful and say they fear “repression” from the security forces.
Officials, activists and leaders from across the Peronist movement are also set to turnout. Fernández de Kirchner is the national chair of the Partido Justicialista (PJ).
The ex-president will appear before the court to comply with legal obligations after being sentenced to six years in prison and a lifetime ban from holding public office, a sentence that was confirmed by the Supreme Court earlier this month.
Buenos Aires Province Senator María Teresa García said the march would begin outside Fernández de Kirchner’s residence at 10am and proceed onto Comodoro Py.
García said she feared possible repression from Security Minister Patricia Bullrich, citing the anti-protest protocol. Demonstrators would stay “as long as necessary” to guarantee the PJ leader’s safety, she said.
“I’d advise them to be very careful with what they do – she is a former president and has received strong support from Latin American leaders,” said the senator.
Union backing
Leaders from the Central de Trabajadoras y Trabajadores de la Argentina (CTA), Asociación de Trabajadores del Estado (ATE), La Cámpora, Principios y Valores, Patria Grande, Movimiento Derecho Al Futuro have also confirmed their attendance at the protest.
Rodolfo Aguiar, general secretary of ATE state workers’ union, has called for stronger action, endorsing strike action “to stop a judicial caste” that, in his view, is acting in the interests of “privileged economic minorities.”
“We cannot allow a hijacked Supreme Court to have the power to disqualify political leaders in Argentina,” he said in remarks to the media over the weekend.
CTA leaders Hugo Yasky and Hugo Godoy also said they would join the march in defence of Fernández Kirchner and, in particular, the lifetime ban on her holding public office. Like ATE, the union called for work stoppages.
“The attempt to ban Cristina is just another chapter in the story of revenge and hatred from the ruling classes. But the people always return,” Yasky said.
Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof, speaking as head of the new Movimiento Derecho al Futuro group, said the former president was being punished “for governing in favour of the majority and defending national interests.”
Patria Grande leader Juan Grabois posted on social media that a “judicial coup” had been carried out, one which “degrades democracy” and deprives the people of choosing “the best president” Argentina has had “since Juan Domingo Perón.”
Guillermo Moreno, a former government official during Fernández de Kirchner’s 2007-2015 spell as president, said “the Cristina we see today is the best version of her since 2006.” The Principios y Valores leader praised the unity within Peronism.
Kicillof, a former national economy minister in whose relationship with Fernández de Kirchner of late has been put under strain, warned that her conviction represented an attack on democracy.
“[President Javier] Milei celebrates, [former president Mauricio] Macri celebrates and so does the US Embassy. But the people embrace her,” he said in a post on social media.
House arrest?
Following the Supreme Court's decision to uphold Fernández de Kirchner’s conviction in the 'Vialidad' corruption case, the former president is due to surrender to the authorities on Wednesday – the deadline she was given last week.
Her legal team has already applied for house arrest but a decision is yet to be made. Fernández de Kirchner is 72, two years above the eligibility limit, and has a private security team due to her role as an ex-president and as a consequence of the 2022 assassination attempt she survived.
Judge Jorge Gorini of the Federal Oral Court No. 2 (TOF 2), who handed down the original sentence in 2022 alongside fellow judges Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu and Andrés Basso, is expected to approve house arrest due to her age – a move some see as a bid to “defuse” the demonstration.
Reports are circulating that the judges may issue a ruling to that end on Tuesday in order to lower tensions and avoid a large security operation that would provide "unnecessary strain" on state expenses.
Fernández de Kirchner's supporters say they will demonstrate regarldess.
“I want to make it clear that we are going to mobilise … Wednesday’s march will be massive,” said Senator Oscar Parrilli, a Kirchnerite loyalist.
“They’ve dealt a mortal blow to the democracy we won back in 1983. We’ve gone back to the 1960s, when Peronism was banned and elections were annulled under other names,” he complained.
Parrilli said Fernández de Kirchner “represents great hope” for Argentines and is “the only one who can confront Javier Milei’s government” at the ballot box.
García said the sentence condemning Fernández de Kirchner to prison and banning her from public office represented “a rupture of the democratic pact” established in Argentina since 1983 and warned that it would have negative repercussions internationally, “because no country is going to support this.”
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
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