Argentina's Cristina Kirchner Will Serve Jail Term at Home, but Under Strict Conditions
July 16—On July 11, the three judges of Argentina’s Court of Cassation ruled that former President Cristina Kirchner may serve her six-year jail term, to which she was sentenced in a fraudulent corruption trial, at her apartment in Buenos Aires. The prosecutors who sentenced her in the original 2022 trial, had demanded that she either serve her term in an ordinary prison, without her security detail, or be sent away to a remote location, where she would be isolated from her supporters, and restricted in receiving visitors.
The court’s decision wasn’t unanimous, however. According to *Página 12 July 12 Judges Gustavo Hornos and Diego Barroetavena took up the bulk of a 137-page ruling to rage against her, decry her “crimes,” and insist she continue using an electronic anklet because there can be no “undue flexibility” allowed in her case. The third judge, Mariano Borinsky, argued the opposite—that the electronic anklet is unnecessary, given that she is a public figure who has a 24-hour Federal Police guard at her door, and is not a flight risk. Nor, he said, do federal judges have the authority to determine who can visit her.
In Argentina’s heightened and highly polarized pre-electoral situation, as the country heads into October legislative elections, keeping the outspoken and very popular former President silent is a priority for the thin-skinned President Javier Milei, whose murderous economic program she has publicly and frequently savaged. In September, elections will be held in the all-important Buenos Aires province, where the Peronists have stopped internal faction fighting to form a unity slate, Patriot Force (Fuerza Patria). Milei is desperate to have his Freedom Advances party (LLA) make a good showing in the province, the country’s most populous, and the center of national industry.
The political persecution of Cristina Kirchner, whose two presidencies (2007-2015) prioritized social welfare, economic and scientific development while defying predatory vulture funds and the international monetarist financial cartel, led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), has gained prominence in Ibero-America and internationally. This was highlighted when her close friend and political ally, Brazilian President Lula da Silva, visited her at her apartment on July 4. While her lawyers will exhaust every legal avenue to free her within Argentina, they will also take her case to international venues, such as the Inter-American Human Rights Court, to seek justice for her.