December 8, 2022, 22:42 PM
December 8, 2022, 22:42 PM
The Argentine vice president, Cristina Kirchner, tested positive for covid-19 this Thursday, two days after receiving a six-year prison sentence in a corruption trial, which forced the postponement of a meeting of the Puebla Group and demonstrations in his support next Monday.
“The meeting of the Puebla Group ‘Popular will and democracy. From the military party to the judicial party, threats to democracy’, which was scheduled to take place for next December 12 it is postponed to the 19th of the same month“The organization said in a statement.
He clarified that the postponement “is due to the fact that Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has tested positive for Covid. Cristina is in good health in El Calafate“, where he has a house in southern Argentina.
In the Puebla Group meeting, a forum of left-wing Latin American leaders who have already expressed their support for Kichner in a statementthe participation of ex-presidents such as the Ecuadorian Rafael Correa, the Uruguayan José Mujica and the Bolivian Evo Morales was expected.
For that day, Peronist political and union groups had called for a demonstration in support of the vice president in front of the Kirchner Cultural Center, the venue scheduled for the meeting, 200 meters from the Casa Rosada (government headquarters), in downtown Buenos Aires.
Last Tuesday, Kirchner was sentenced to six years in prison and life disqualification for being found guilty of fraud in public works tenders during her two presidential terms (2007-2015), a sentence that she attributes to political-judicial persecution.
The 69-year-old vice president has a mandate until December 2023, when she will lose the privileges that protect her from going to prison, beyond the appeals that can take several years.
After the verdict is known, Kirchner said that he is giving up running for any elective office in next year’s elections.
