Cristina Fernández de Kirchner criticised Argentina’s Judiciary on Tuesday after it issued an adverse ruling for the ex-president that will see her jailed and banned from holding public office for the rest of her life.
Fernández de Kirchner, 72, addressed supporters outside the headquarters of the Partido Justicialista (PJ) she currently chairs, declaring that “this Argentina we are living in never ceases to surprise us.”
Comparing the decision to confirm her fraud conviction and enforce a six-year jail term and lifetime political disqualification to the falling purchasing power of Argentines, she quipped: “Now the Judicial Party has now added a clampdown on the popular vote.”
In a forceful statement, she rejected the ruling and sharply criticised the judges involved in it, stating: “The Supreme Court is a triumvirate of disgraceful figures.”
She accused the justices of being “three puppets answering to Argentina’s concentrated economic power.”
She went on to highlight the achievements of her 2007-2015 administration, citing “the highest wages in Latin America without turning” to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and rejected the “lie” and arguments of her opponents that her government had destroyed the country.
She concluded with a warning: “They can imprison me, but the people’s problems won’t be solved by court rulings.”
“The people are like a river – you can pile stones in its path, but the water always finds a way through. I hope it’s Peronism that channels that current,” she declared.
“Peronists show our faces and put our bodies on the line – we are not mafiosos,” unlike Argentina’s right, she concluded.
– TIMES/NA
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