Former Argentine President Cristina Kirchner left her home this Tuesday, where she is serving, to appear before the court that judges whether or not she headed an illicit association dedicated to collecting bribes. She was the first of the 87 defendants in the case to testify in person. During her defense, she declared herself a victim of “political persecution” and accused judges and prosecutors of using “mafia practices” to obtain statements against her and put her in the dock. “It seems to me that this cause is a great nonsense. I would like you to tell me how it was, how they paid me,” he said defiantly about , known as cause of the Notebooks because the starting point were the detailed notes made by a power driver about the transfer of bags with money from one place to another. “With this Judicial Power I could die in prison,” he concluded.
For Kirchner, this second trial for alleged corruption that he faces is even less solid than the first, in which for irregularities in the awarding of fifty public works in the province of Santa Cruz, cradle of Kirchnerism, in the extreme south of Argentina. “Roads are a bean next to this. This case was conceived. Someone may think that there is a respectable Judiciary. When I see what they say and the trial continues, I see that the sentence is already written,” added the politician who governed Argentina between 2007 and 2015.
The former president’s defense consisted of denouncing the adulteration of the central evidence of the case, and accusing the first investigating judge, Claudio Bonadio, and the prosecutor Carlos Stornelli of mafia practices. “They built the evidence, there was forum shopping and they pressured and threatened the businessmen to make them say anything,” he criticized. “For this reason they turned my houses upside down. Where is the money? How, when and where were all the episodes they say. What is this about PBI being stolen? Do you know how I live, how my children live?“Kirchner continued.
The prosecution accuses Kirchner of having headed a bribery collection network started by her husband and predecessor in office, the now deceased former president Néstor Kirchner, linked to public works and transportation. Dozens of businessmen are accused in the Cuadernos case for allegedly having paid in exchange for benefiting from public contracts.
Before the court, the former president denounced the double standards of Justice, which she accused of advancing quickly in the cases that have her as the protagonist and, on the other hand, sleeping on those that are linked to other former presidents, such as the conservative Mauricio Macri. At the end of his statement, which lasted 50 minutes, he refused to answer questions.
Dozens of supporters accompanied the former president to the doors of the court and also in front of her. The opposition leader has been under house arrest for nine months and is disqualified for life from holding public office, but retains significant power within Peronism.
On the eve of her statement, Kirchner accused Justice of forcing her to appear to divert attention from the political scandals that stalk the Government of Javier Milei and the economic problems that many Argentines are going through. “When the Executive Branch does not give bread and work to the People… the Judicial Party and the hegemonic media give them a circus”, .
