Cristina Kirchner begins to comply

Cristina Kirchner greets her supporters from the balcony of her department in Constitution — Photo foot, Cristina Kirchner will serve the sentence in her Department of Constitution. Outside, hundreds of supporters meet to support it.

Author, Veronica Smink
Author's title, BBC News World, Argentina
2 hours

The former president of Argentina Cristina Fernández de Kirchner began on Tuesday to fulfill a six -year prison sentence and perpetual political disqualification for corruption, after being notified by the justice that may comply with her sentence at her home in the city of Buenos Aires.

Judge Jorge Gorini, who presided over the Federal Criminal Court No. 2 that condemned Kirchner in the first instance in 2022, notified the ex -president of his arrest through a communication by Zoom.

In this way, it was avoided that Kirchner, who ruled Argentina between 2007 and 2015 and was vice president between 2019 and 2023, will appear before the courts on Wednesday, as announced by the head of Peronism itself after the Supreme Court of Justice ratified its conviction last week.

That force – formally called the Justicialist Party (PJ) – planned a great march to accompany its leader from home, in the Southern Barrio de Constitución, towards the courts in the north of the city, where it would be delivered to justice.

The mobilization, which continues to be summoned for Wednesday under the motto “Argentina with Cristina”, denounces that Kirchner was “proscribed”, since he cannot appear from now on to elections or occupy public office for the rest of his life.

Kirchner will have to use an electronic anklet during house prison.

Days before the ruling of the Supreme Court was known, the former president had announced in an interview with postular intention for a position in the legislative elections of this year, whose candidacies are presented in July.

After the ratification of his conviction, on June 10, Kirchner's defense presented a letter before the International Criminal Court in The Hague to denounce his proscription, and announced that he also plans to go to the Inter -American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR).

Kirchner claims to be a victim of lawfarea political, media and judicial persecution orchestrated by “the concentrated economic power”, in particular the Clarín Group, the main media conglomerate of the country.

He has received the support of several political leaders, including Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva, president of Brazil, and Rafael Correa, ex -president of Ecuador, who also reported being persecuted.

The case

The former president was convicted of the crime of fraudulent administration to the detriment of the State for the so -called “road cause”, in which she was accused of having addressed public works in the Patagonian province of Santa Cruz, the bastion of the Kirchner.

According to Justice, days before assuming as head of state, in 2003, Néstor Kirchner – who died in 2010 – and his wife created a construction company called Austral Construcciones, which later awarded almost 80% of the road works that were carried out in that province during the 12 years of Kirchnerism.

The company was favored with millions of millionaire and only two works were completed on time. Half never finished, which meant a loss for the state of more than US $ 500 million.

The person in charge of Austral Construcciones, Lázaro Báez, a man without experience in the construction of the construction and who has been accused of being a Kirchner's testaferro, was also convicted in the case, as well as seven Kirchner former officials, who will also begin their penalty on Tuesday.

The defender's defense argues that there was no evidence to directly and personally link Cristina Kirchner with the granting of works to Lázaro Báez, and that a head of state does not directly decide on these tenders, there are 12 administrative instances between the presidency and the works in question.

On the other hand, he points out that the budget for the works is executed by the head of the Cabinet, and yet no one of the people who held this position during Kirchnerism was judged, including Alberto Fernández, who would later be elected by Kirchner herself to be a candidate for president, with her as Vice, in 2019.

Meanwhile, the ex -president remarked that Parliament approved these investments in public works when it sanctioned the Budget Law and that justice has no power to judge how a government, democratically elected, distributes public investment.