NewsWorldZapatero and Baltasar Garzón cover Kirchner in a tribute after his conviction for corruption

Zapatero and Baltasar Garzón cover Kirchner in a tribute after his conviction for corruption

This Tuesday several Latin American leaders and former presidents met in the Argentine capital in defense of the current vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, sentenced to 6 years in prison and disqualification to hold public office for corruption.

The members of the call Puebla Group -a forum of representatives of progressivism in Latin America formed in 2019 in the Mexican city that gave it its name- arrived in Buenos Aires this week to participate in the meeting. The former presidents of Bolivia (Evo Morales), Ecuador (Rafael Correa) and Uruguay (Jose ‘Pepe’ Mujica) were among those attending the event. Also present were the former Spanish president José Luis Zapatero and former judge Baltasar Garzón.

The meeting of politicians was called «Popular will and democracy. From the military party to the judicial party, threats to democracy» and took place at the Kirchner Cultural Center (CCK) in Buenos Aires. Within the framework of this event, the book «Objective: Cristina. The ‘lawfare’ against democracy in Argentina”, designed by the Puebla Group itself.

Cristina Kirchner’s speech

Some of the most outstanding statements of the day on Tuesday have been those of the jurist Balthazar Garzon, who maintained that “the media indicates that Cristina is an unworthy person, I say that the unworthy are those who sign that sentence.” Correa, for his part, said that “being guilty or innocent will be an irrelevant detail for judges, under political and media pressure” and added: “The judges have committed an outrage.” For his part, the former Spanish president Zapatero opined: »We must not judicialize politics because Justice ends up being politicized and doing enormous damage to legal institutions«.

Although the meeting of regional leaders and former leaders began at around 5:00 p.m. local time, the most anticipated speech, that of the vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchnerit just happened after 9:00 p.m. – almost three hours later than announced-, and it lasted 35 minutes, after several of the representatives of other countries had expressed themselves.

The Puebla group met this Tuesday at the Kirchner Cultural Center

Upon entering the stage of the event, the current Argentine vice president spoke of the meeting as “a night of many caresses and blows after so many blows and even shot attempts», in reference to the attack on his person that occurred on September 1 in Buenos Aires. As soon as the official spoke, several of those attending her appointment encouraged her by shouting “Cristina president”, despite the fact that it is not yet known if she will be a candidate in the presidential elections.

A few minutes later, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner focused her speech on ‘lawfare’, of which she said that “it is the criminalization of politics, but not of all politics, but of one that has to do with income distribution, with upward social mobility so that our societies are not crystallized between rich and poor”.

In turn, the official fired: “They persecute us because we equalize society, the right of workers to participate equitably in what they produce.” Later, she went so far as to say: “I don’t care if they put me in jail.”

The absence of Alberto Fernández

One of the data that caught the attention of the local press was the absence of Alberto Fernández in the match. Although the Argentine president met earlier with some members of the Puebla Group, the official was absent from the event. The Argentine media interpreted it as another gesture of distance between the president and vice president.

In a year of presidential elections, the tension between both officials has been accentuating while it is defined who will be the candidate by the ruling party. The local press assures that the president wants to seek re-election, but does not have the approval of his party.

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