Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, accused of corruption, contracted this Tuesday with a defense speech in which she denounced what she considers a judicial persecution to expel her from politics.
Nothing, absolutely nothing they said [los fiscales] It was tested. When I said that they had the sentence written, I fell short, “said Fernández de Kirchner from his office in the Senate presidency.
Accused along with twelve other people for the crimes of illicit association and aggravated fraudulent administration, the Prosecutor’s Office also requested on Monday the perpetual political disqualification of the vice president.
Hundreds of supporters demonstrated to support her outside her house in Buenos Aires and then in front of Congress.
“This is not a trial against me, it is a trial against Peronism, against the national and popular governments,” said the 69-year-old lawyer who was president of Argentina between 2007 and 2015.
The vice president had requested an extension of her preliminary statement for this Tuesday, but the court dismissed the request considering that this stage had already closed and that the vice president will be able to present her points in the defense arguments as of September 5.
“It’s 12 years [de pedido de cárcel], the 12 years of the best government that Argentina had in recent decades, that’s why they ask for 12 years. That is why they will stigmatize and condemn me. If he were born 20 times, he would do the same thing 20 times. They want to take revenge, this disciplines the political class so that no one dares to do the same thing twice,” Kirchner said.
The accusation against Kirchner dates back to her two terms as president (2007-15) and the previous one (2003-2007) of her husband Néstor Kirchner, who died in 2010.
The case described her as the head of an illicit association, with which she allegedly guided the attribution of public works tenders in the province of Santa Cruz (south), her political cradle, to favor the businessman Lázaro Báez.
Kirchner has been dismissed in several cases for alleged crimes that occurred when she was president, but she still faces five trials.
