Buenos AiresReuters —
Argentina’s top court effectively banned two-term former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from office and upheld a six-year jail sentence, likely drawing a curtain on one of the country’s most flamboyant and divisive political careers.
Kirchner, 72, a polarizing opposition figure and leftist president from 2007 to 2015, was convicted by a trial court in 2022 for a fraud scheme that steered public road work projects in the Patagonia to a close ally while she was president.
The ruling scuppers Kirchner’s plans to run in Buenos Aires provincial legislative elections, but could galvanize her divided Peronist opposition coalition, which has been licking its wounds since being ousted in 2023 by current libertarian President Javier Milei.
The Supreme Court’s three judges rejected Kirchner’s appeal and left in effect an appellate court decision that had upheld the guilty verdict. A lower court will decide whether to grant Kirchner house arrest due to her age.
“The complaint is dismissed,” the Supreme Court said in a ruling. Kirchner has denied wrongdoing and claims she is a victim of political persecution.
In Buenos Aires, her supporters blocked roads across the city. Some banged on drums. Others carried banners with the image of Evita Perón, the wife of Juan Perón, the founder of the political movement who was known as a defender of the poor.
“A triumverate of unpresentables,” Kirchner said of the Supreme Court judges after the ruling, speaking before thousands of supporters who rallied in downtown Buenos Aires outside the headquarters of her Peronist Justicialista party.
Kirchner’s shadow looms large over the Peronist movement, which needs to identify a new generation of leaders.
“The fact that she goes to jail and can’t be a candidate doesn’t eliminate her political movement,” said political analyst Carlos Fara. “Obviously though it won’t be the same.”
A government source said that it could both weaken or strengthen the opposition. Peronism “can either entrench itself or break into a thousand pieces,” the person told Reuters.
