Argentina\u2019s top court effectively banned two-term former President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner from office and upheld a six-year jail sentence, likely drawing a curtain on one of the country\u2019s most flamboyant and divisive political careers. <\/p>\n
Kirchner, 72, a polarizing opposition figure and leftist president from 2007 to 2015, was convicted by a trial court in 2022 for a fraud scheme that steered public road work projects in the Patagonia to a close ally while she was president. <\/p>\n
The ruling scuppers Kirchner\u2019s plans to run in Buenos Aires provincial legislative elections, but could galvanize her divided Peronist opposition coalition, which has been licking its wounds since being ousted in 2023 by current libertarian President Javier Milei. <\/p>\n
The Supreme Court\u2019s three judges rejected Kirchner\u2019s appeal and left in effect an appellate court decision that had upheld the guilty verdict. A lower court will decide whether to grant Kirchner house arrest due to her age. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe complaint is dismissed,\u201d the Supreme Court said in a ruling. Kirchner has denied wrongdoing and claims she is a victim of political persecution. <\/p>\n
In Buenos Aires, her supporters blocked roads across the city. Some banged on drums. Others carried banners with the image of Evita Per\u00f3n, the wife of Juan Per\u00f3n, the founder of the political movement who was known as a defender of the poor. <\/p>\n
\u201cA triumverate of unpresentables,\u201d Kirchner said of the Supreme Court judges after the ruling, speaking before thousands of supporters who rallied in downtown Buenos Aires outside the headquarters of her Peronist Justicialista party. <\/p>\n
Kirchner\u2019s shadow looms large over the Peronist movement, which needs to identify a new generation of leaders. <\/p>\n
\u201cThe fact that she goes to jail and can\u2019t be a candidate doesn\u2019t eliminate her political movement,\u201d said political analyst Carlos Fara. \u201cObviously though it won\u2019t be the same.\u201d <\/p>\n
A government source said that it could both weaken or strengthen the opposition. Peronism \u201ccan either entrench itself or break into a thousand pieces,\u201d the person told Reuters. <\/p>\n
Prosecutors accused Kirchner of directing hundreds of millions of dollars to construction magnate L\u00e1zaro B\u00e1ez. During her government and that of her late husband, N\u00e9stor Kirchner, companies tied to B\u00e1ez were awarded dozens of government contracts for roadwork projects in Patagonia but nearly half of them were abandoned, prosecutors said. <\/p>\n
B\u00e1ez and other officials were sentenced to prison terms. <\/p>\n
Peronism and Kirchner\u2019s popularity have suffered in recent years. She served as vice president in 2019 under President Alberto Fern\u00e1ndez, whose government oversaw a slide into economic crisis by overprinting pesos that led to sharp spike in inflation. <\/p>\n
But she has still been able to maintain a hardcore support base, particularly from working-class voters who relied on government subsidies under her and her husband\u2019s governments. <\/p>\n
\u201cAs a figure she\u2019s not been overshadowed on the political scene by anyone,\u201d said Carolina Barry, an expert on Peronism at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires. \u201cHer words resonate with many groups.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kirchner has been sharply critical of Milei\u2019s austerity, accusing him of cutting pensions and defunding public education. Milei has shot back that he would \u201clove to bang the last nail in the coffin of Kirchnerismo, with Cristina Kirchner inside.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cJustice,\u201d wrote Milei on X after the verdict on Tuesday. <\/p>\n
Alejandro Carri\u00f3, a constitutional and criminal law expert in Buenos Aires, said that even if Kirchner serves the sentence under house arrest, it was unclear \u201cif with time she\u2019ll lose the clear leadership she\u2019s held for years.\u201d <\/p>\n
Kirchner faces charges in several other criminal cases and is scheduled to stand trial in November on accusations that she led a large-scale bribery scheme. <\/p>\n
She\u2019s not the first Argentine president to face a criminal conviction, joining, among others, former President Carlos Menem, who was sentenced to over four years in prison for embezzlement of public funds during his presidency in the 1990s. As a senator, congressional immunity protected him from prison. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Argentina\u2019s top court effectively banned two-term former President Cristina Fern\u00e1ndez de Kirchner from office and upheld a six-year jail sentence, likely drawing a curtain on one of the country\u2019s most flamboyant and divisive political careers. Kirchner, 72, a polarizing opposition figure and leftist president from 2007 to 2015, was convicted by a trial court in <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17235,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17234","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17234","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17234"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17234\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17235"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17234"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17234"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17234"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}