The Puebla Group, the political and academic forum of the left in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal, expressed its “solidarity” with Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and considered that he is facing a “shameful political attack, dressed as a judicial ruling”, referring to the six-year judicial sentence that the former president received in the framework of the cause called Traffic.
“The Puebla Group stands in solidarity with the Vice President of the Republic of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in the face of the shameful political attack, disguised as a court ruling, delivered against her,” the Puebla Group said in a statement.
The Group will close ranks to denounce the ‘lawfare’ against Fernández de Kirchner and give him its “transversal support”, in a meeting that will take place next Monday in Buenos Aires, in which President Alberto Fernández and the Vice President will appear together again.
“The Puebla Group stands in solidarity with the Vice President of the Republic of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, in the face of the shameful political attack, disguised as a court ruling, delivered against her”
In a statement, the Latin American regional bloc considered that the court ruling “opens a new chapter of the legal war (lawfare) that has been taking place in the region against progressive leaders” and cites as examples the cases of “Luis Inácio Lula da Silva in Brazil, Evo Morales in Bolivia and Rafael Correa in Ecuador”.
“In this as in the other cases – the statement points out – the rights of the Vice President to due process, a good name and the possibility of representing her people in free elections have also been ignored. There has even been an attempt against her life to physically eliminate it”.
? Declaration of the Puebla Group on the sentence of Cristina Fernández de Kirchnerhttps://t.co/wMLEqzwpSe
— Puebla Group (@ProgresaLatam) December 8, 2022
In addition, it maintains that “legal wars blow up democratic spaces, handing them over to murky conspiracies of factual powers that use justice for political purposes, cause severe reputational damage to the accused and weaken political projects inspired by freedom, social justice and sovereignty. of our countries”.
The Puebla Groupmade up of 16 countries, recalls that “precisely, in days gone by, President Alberto Fernandez denounced some of these dark maneuvers that could well be considered a prelude to the unfortunate judicial episode known today”.
For this reason, the regional block indicated that it “calls on international human rights organizations to monitor the development of this process in its new procedural stages and invites the Argentine people and their progressive forces to respond to these attacks in a unified and peaceful manner.”
“The truth will prevail and the people will know how to condemn this shameful use of justice and the media to separate a representative and combative leadership like Cristina’s”ends the statement.
The document is signed by President Alberto Fernández; Ernesto Samper, former president of Colombia; and the leaders Aloizio Mercadante, from Brazil; Cecilia Nicolini, from Argentina; Alicia Bárcena, from Mexico; Marco Enríquez-Ominami, from Chile; Andrés Arauz, from Ecuador; Verónika Mendoza, from Peru; Gabriela Rivadeneira, from Ecuador; Adriana Salvatierra, from Bolivia; Celso Amorin, former Foreign Minister of Brazil; Carlos Sotelo, from Mexico; Esperanza Martinez, from Paraguay; Ricardo Patino, from Ecuador; Aída García Naranjo, from Peru; Karol Cariola, from Chile; Guillaume Long, from Ecuador; Clara Lopez, from Colombia; Carlos Ominami, from Chile; Ana Isabel Prera, from Guatemala; and Camilo Lagos, from Chile.
