Crisis flares after president’s accuser mysteriously slain
By Debora Rey and Peter Prengaman
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina — Faced with one of the biggest crises of her presidency, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has given her countrymen a confusing and sometimes contradictory view of how her most damaging accuser was found dead, at first seeming to accept the idea of suicide and later describing it as an elaborate murder plot to undermine her government.
Fernandez’s response to what reads like a whodunit movie script — prosecutor Alberto Nisman is found dead with a bullet in his head hours before he was set to elaborate on explosive allegations against Fernandez — has deepened a political crisis with wide implications for the last year of her presidency and perhaps even for the future of the country beyond that. Losing control
For the first time in her presidency, Fernandez appears to have lost control.
“It’s possibly the most difficult moment politically that (the ruling party) has had during its decade in power,” said Rosendo Fraga, a political consultant with the Nueva Mayoria think tank.
Many Argentines say the mysterious death has underscored an erosion of faith in the country’s institutions and in Fernandez at a time when her administration is struggling to fight economic ills and rising street crime.
The crisis began on Jan. 18, when Nisman, 51, was found dead hours before he was to speak to Congress about his claims that Fernandez had secretly reached a deal with Iran to shield officials wanted in the biggest terrorist attack in the country’s history. Alleged a cover-up
Days earlier, Nisman had given a judge a report asking for criminal proceedings against Fernandez over an alleged coverup of the 1994 bombing of Argentina’s largest Jewish center, an attack that killed 85 people.
Fernandez has made no public appearances since then but has laid out her response in two posts on social media sites, attacking the allegations while suggesting Nisman was a pawn of forces trying to undermine her.
“She should have guaranteed total independence for the justice system to investigate,” said Martin Bohmer, former dean of the law school at the University of San Andres. “Instead, she presented herself as a victim of the situation.”
In a national poll released Wednesday, 80 percent said they believed the Nisman case would hurt Fernandez’s image, and 60 percent said the investigation of his death lacked transparency.
The blow comes as Fernandez’s Justicialist Party heads toward national elections in October.