FROM EIR DAILY ALERT

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Cracks Widen in Phony Corruption Cases Against Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández

Nov. 15, 2018 (EIRNS)—In six trumped-up corruption cases against former Argentina President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the evidence against her is so clearly fabricated that the cases don’t stand up in court. On Nov. 8, federal Judge Sebastian Casanello ruled that charges against Fernández in the money-laundering case involving businessman Lazaro Baez were “without merit,” because evidence was nonexistent.

There is increasing commentary, even from hostile journalists and political figures, that the many cases against Fernández, in which she is portrayed as the most corrupt politician in Argentine history, have gone overboard, and are tarnishing the image of neo-liberal President Mauricio Macri. The fact that Macri and his compliant justice system have created their own version of Brazil’s U.S. Justice Department/FBI-directed “Lava Jato” (“Operation Carwash”) anti-corruption probe, with prominent businessmen parading through Buenos Aires courts to “confess” to paying bribes to the Fernández government in order to avoid jail, is also being questioned.

The “proof” in one of the cases against Fernández consists of photocopies of notebooks (not the actual notebooks) which the chauffeur of a former government official claims he compiled to show that businessmen were paying bribes to the Fernández government in exchange for public works contracts. Journalist Carlos Pagni, who writes for the Anglophile daily La Nación, noted in his Nov. 12 “Odisea Argentina” podcast, that the notebook saga “is getting a bit complicated” for Macri, “because prosecutors haven’t succeeded in producing the necessary evidence to make the charges and conviction stick.” In statements reported Nov. 5 in “iProfesional,” former Foreign Minister Susana Malcorra also warned about “abuse” of pre-trial detention, as it is now being liberally applied in Argentina, and used extensively in Brazil’s “Lava Jato” operation, calling this “worrisome” and “dangerous.”