Bonadio closes ‘ Cuadernos’ probe, sends Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for trial
Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who governed Argentina as president between 2007 and 2015, is to face another trial for corruption, Federal Judge Claudio Bonadio ruled yesterday.
The news comes with the former head of state locked in an election campaign, just five weeks before the country goes to the polls for an election that will decide whether President Mauricio Macri will win re-election. Fernández de Kirchner, who remains popular among her core supporters, is the vice-presidential candidate on the front-running Frente de Todos ticket, headed by Alberto Fernández. She is due to hold a campaign event today in La Matanza, a Peronist stronghold in Buenos Aires Province.
The corruption charges come under the framework of so-called ‘ cuadernos’ (“notebooks”) case, one of Argentina’s h ighest-prof i le g ra f t probes to date, which Bonadio closed yesterday and sent to trial. The date for the start of the trial has not yet been set.
The investigation, which is focused on alleged bribes and corruption related to public works contracts, is based on detailed records chronicling graft recorded by Oscar Centeno, a former driver and chauffeur detailed to the Planning Ministry.
Centeno, among others, drove for the ministry’s exsecretary of coordination and administration Roberto Baratta.
The investigation, which sent shockwaves through the political and entrepreneurial scene when it broke, was open for over a year in total and ended up involving almost the entire construction sector (including members of President Mauricio Macri’s family such as his brother, Gianfranco Macri, and his cousin, Ángelo Calcaterra). More than 30 of those called to testify have taken plea bargains and turned state’s witness.
Nonetheless, Fernández de Kirchner’s chances of actually going to trial are remote since she currently enjoys parliamentaryimmunity.IfPeronisthopeful Alberto Fernández wins the October 27 election and she is confirmed as vice-president next month, it would take an impeachment to bring her to court.
Bonadio yesterday again asked for the former president’s immunity to be removed but his request has fallen on deaf ears untilnowintheSenate(withthe resistance headed by Macri’s running-mate, Senator Miguel Angel Pichetto). The judge has yet to set a date for the trial.
“The appointee will be brought to trial for acts of corruption committed while holding the maximum position of the National Executive Power, its consequences extend to society in general in view of the serious damage caused,” Bonadio said in a filing, charging that the former president was the “head of an illicit association.”
The prosecution estimates the kickbacks to total at least US$160 million, starting from 2003 when the senator’s late husband Néstor Kirchner reached the presidency.
Julio De Vido, who served for 12 years as planning minister under the former president and her late husband and predecessor, has been sentenced to five years and eight months jail time as part of the cuadernos probe.
This is not the first time the ex-president has been ordered to stand trial – since leaving office, the ex-head of state has been dogged by legal woes. There are 13 open cases against her in the courts.
Last February she was also indicted for corruption, this time for the irregular concession of public works to crony tycoon Lázaro Báez in Santa Cruz province (currently governed by her sister-in law Alicia Kirchner).There are also half a dozen charges centred on moneylaundering via the family’s Patagonian hotel chain, cases involving her children Máximo Kirchner and Florencia Kirchner, among others.
Gregorio Dalbón, one of the formerpresident’slawyers,described the accusations against the ex-president as “political persecution.”
“There is no proof, no evidence against her. The cases seek to prevent her from competing in the elections and what they have achieved is the opposite, her image is intact,” Dalbón told the AFP news agency.
Fernández de Kirchner has just returned to Argentina from Cuba, where she spent more tha n a week v isiting her daughter Florencia Kirchner, who has been on the island receiving medical treatment for the last six months.