“The sentence was written”, declared Cristina Kirchner in a long “pleading” live on social networks where the lawyer by training contested on the merits the points raised by the prosecution in this trial for corruption in a case of awarding of public contracts under his presidency (2007 to 2015).
“Nothing, absolutely nothing of what the prosecutors said has been proven,” she said, brandishing throughout her hour and a half speech extracts from acts, tables of accounts, press articles, excerpts from emails, etc.
Then in a clear politicization, she affirmed that “it is not a trial against me, it is a trial of Peronism, of national and popular governments”. “It’s 12 years (in prison required) for the 12 years of the best government that Argentina has had in recent decades,” she said. “They’re not after me, they’re after you!”
Ms. Kirchner, 69, was speaking from her office in the Senate, of which she is the president, a charge which earned her parliamentary immunity and should save her from prison. Unless the Supreme Court ratifies a possible conviction or the immunity does not continue after the general elections at the end of 2023.
After several weeks of defense pleadings – the co-defendants number 13 – a judgment in this trial is only expected towards the end of the year.
The vice-president decided to defend herself via social networks, after being denied on Monday an additional testimony at the trial requested through her lawyer.
Outside the Senate, a few hundred supporters who were waiting for her greeted her arrival, then celebrated her at length afterwards as she greeted them from the balcony. Still others had waited for her early Tuesday morning at her home, celebrating her departure for the Upper House.
Sign of the political impact of Cristina Kirchner, very popular but also divisive, several hundred demonstrators, pro and anti-Kirchner, had spontaneously gathered Monday evening near her home after the requisition, creating moments of tension which have forced the police to intervene in large numbers to keep the two camps apart.
Cristina Kirchner also received marks of support on Tuesday from leaders or ex-leaders of the South American left, such as former Bolivian president Evo Morales, or ex-Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff.