The Puebla Group, a forum that brings together progressive leaders from Latin America and Spain, issued a statement this Thursday (4th), signed by former presidents such as Dilma Rousseff, in which it expressed “repudiation” of what claims to be a judicial “persecution” suffered by Argentina’s vice president, Cristina Kirchner.
“The Puebla Group regrets and rejects the legal war (lawfare) being waged against the vice president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a process plagued by contradictions and motivated by obscure political interests of powerful economic conglomerates”, states the text.
Cristina, who was president of the country between 2007 and 2015, faces the final stretch of a trial in which she is accused of being part of an illicit association during her years as president, allegedly intended to favor with works contracts construction company Lázaro Báez, who has already been convicted in 2021 for leading a money laundering scheme money obtained from public works contracts awarded during the Kirchnerist governments.
On Monday, during the pleadings phase, the prosecution alleged that the current vice president and her late husband, the Former President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), created “one of the most extraordinary matrices of corruption” during their mandates.
The Puebla Group considers that this case confirms “the risky but unfortunately common trend” of other cases in Latin America against former presidents such as Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Rafael Correa, Evo Morales and Dilma Rousseff , with a common denominator: “retaliation for their work on the side of progressivism”.
“We express our repudiation of this persecution and warn about the serious risks it entails for Argentine democracy”, says the document, signed by 26 political leaders, among them, in addition to Dilma, the former president of the Government of Spain, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero.