The trial for alleged corruption against Argentine Vice President Cristina Kirchner and 12 other people resumed on Monday with allegations from the defense, in an atmosphere of tension and political commotion after the failed attack against who was twice president (2007-2015).
The intervention of Kirchner’s defense, 69 years old, is expected at the end of September, without a fixed date yet, since the allegations are developed following a list in alphabetical order.
Kirchner is accused of having favored, when she was president, the businessman Lázaro Báez in the attribution of bids for public works in Santa Cruz (south).
This Monday’s hearing will be dedicated to the allegation of Héctor Garro, a former director of public works in Santa Cruz.
Prosecutors have requested 12 years in prison and lifelong disqualification for Kirchner under the charges of illicit association and aggravated fraudulent administration.
The Prosecutor’s Office calculated the amount defrauded to the State in about one billion dollars. The verdict is expected to be delivered by the end of the year. The vice president enjoys parliamentary privileges that exempt her from going to jail or being disqualified.
The final stage of this judicial process, which began in 2019, is surrounded by a climate of acute political polarization, aggravated by the attack committed against Kirchner on Thursday night by a 35-year-old man at the gates of his house in Buenos Aires.
Fernando Sabag Montiel, born in Brazil, of a Chilean father and an Argentine mother, was arrested for having placed a pistol centimeters from Kirchner’s head, when the vice president was greeting supporters in the street. Although the man fired twice, the gun did not fire.
Justice has not yet been able to determine if the aggressor has accomplices or if he acted alone. It is also being investigated whether there was any flaw in the vice president’s security scheme.
Kirchner has not made any statement so far.
The assassination attempt was immediately repudiated by the main political leaders in Argentina and a huge demonstration was held on Friday in support of and rejection of violence.
However, the crosses between the ruling party and the opposition persist. On Saturday, a tense session was held in the Chamber of Deputies that condemned the attack, but most of the opposition was absent after signing the common text.
This Sunday, former center-right president Mauricio Macri (2015-19) criticized the fact that the press has been questioned as inciting a climate of hatred.
“The Minister of the Interior himself established a direct link between editorials in newspapers, radio and television and the attack on Cristina Kirchner. This attribution is as irrational as the attack itself and could endanger the lives of journalists, the integrity of the media independent media and democracy itself,” the former president wrote.
