With less than two weeks left until she leaves power, Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner received very bad news this Tuesday: the justice system reviewed a previous decision and reopened a case against her for money laundering.
The case is popularly known as “the K money route”, a money laundering worth 55 million dollars. In June, the two-time president had been acquitted, but the Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires decided to reopen the investigation and return it to the judge who had closed it, Sebastián Casanello.
Lázaro Báez was sentenced to ten years in prison for this case. Báez received a large part of the public works contracts during the Kirchnerist governments and is designated by the justice system as a front man for the former president and her husband and former president Néstor, who died in 2010.
“Without accusation there is no possible criminal process,” the judge had argued in June regarding the decision of the prosecutor in the case, Guillermo Marijuan, not to accuse the former president. The prosecutor’s abstention and the judge’s decision derived from the fact that two plaintiffs representing the State, the Financial Information Unit (UIF) and the Federal Public Revenue Administration (AFIP), had withdrawn from the case.
The UIF and the AFIP had presented themselves as plaintiffs during the government of Mauricio Macri, but they withdrew during that of the Peronist Alberto Fernández.
The reopening of the case known this Tuesday occurred after the presentation of the Republican Bases Civil Association, an NGO close to PRO, Mauricio Macri’s party, which asked to be accepted as a plaintiff and demanded that the case be reopened. By two votes to one, the Federal Chamber advanced in the reopening.
“The incorporation of this new actor also enables the substantive issue of this case to be re-examined,” the court held.
Fernández de Kirchner, who faces other judicial problems in addition to today’s, claims to be a victim of “lawfare”, an alleged conspiracy of the political, judicial and media powers against her.
The former president (2007-2015) will leave the vice presidency this December 10, when the government of the ultra-liberal populist Javier Milei takes over. Fernández de Kirchner recently assured that, without holding any position or privileges to protect her, she will continue doing politics from the grassroots.
On the same day, Macri was acquitted in a case opened for espionage against relatives of the sailors killed in the sinking of the submarine ARA San Juan during his mandate. The former president did not let the topic go, and she also referred to Macri’s candidacy for vice president in the Boca Juniors soccer club elections.
“Postcards from an Argentine morning: Macri confirmed his impunity in the case for the death of the 44 crew members of the ARA San Juan, he revoked my dismissal in the “K money” case and, since it seems that he does not win, he got the judiciary suspend the elections in Boca five days before they are held,” said the former president in X.