MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: Senator Kueider under arrest in Paraguay expelled from Parliament

Kueider said that his expulsion violated basic “constitutional principles such as the constitutional right to legitimate defense”

Argentina's Senate voted overwhelmingly Thursday to expel the Peronist Edgardo Kueider from Entre Ríos, who was arrested in Paraguay with US$ 200,000 of undeclared money in addition to pesos and guaranis. Giving Kueider the thumbs down were the opposition Unión por la Patria (Peronism), the Radical Civic Union (UCR), the ruling La Libertad Avanza (LLA) of President Javier Milei, and part of former President Mauricio Macri's Propuesta Republicana (PRO).

Kueider got elected on behalf of Unión por la Patria but voted in favor of Milei's so-called Bases Law bill. His removal will result in the arrival of die-hard Kirchnerite Stefanía Cora, thus granting the opposition a stronger grip on the House, albeit two votes short of a two-thirds majority of its own. In addition, Kirchnerite Senator Oscar Parrilli, who faces criminal charges for treason, was suspended. Thursday's scenario left a limping ruling party to face 37 votes in the hands of the opposition after Víctor Zimmermann (UCR) was granted an extended leave of absence for a position in Chaco.

Kueider split from the UxP ranks in February 2023 after differences with then-President Alberto Fernández and other followers of then-Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) to later join the five-member pro-Milei United Provinces interbloc.

After the news, Kueider said that his expulsion violated basic “constitutional principles such as the constitutional right to legitimate defense” because he had not been heard during the proceedings. Kueider, still in Paraguay under house arrest, made those remarks in a telephone interview with Buenos Aires' La Nación. “They cannot take a sanctioning measure, let alone an expulsion, based on a presumption. It seems to me an institutional madness,” he contended.

Voting against Kueider's expulsions were PRO's Carmen Álvarez Rivero (Córdoba), Andrea Marcela Cristina (Chubut), Alfredo Luis De Angeli (Entre Ríos), and Enrique Martín Goerling Lara (Misiones), plus the UCR's Maximiliano Abad (Buenos Aires).

Goerling Lara claimed that suspending Kueider was the “best option” since “it fulfilled the objective of removing him from the Senate, leaving him at the disposal of Justice, without pay, without privileges” while preventing “Kirchnerism from winning a seat,” which was “what Kirchnerism cared about.”

De Angeli insisted that “the objective was that Kueider should not be there, and one way or another we would have achieved it, and that is the positive thing.”

Many Senators had spoken against expelling Kueider but changed their minds at the last minute to go with the flow when they were told that such a result was already inevitable.

See also: Argentine Senator's arrest in Paraguay sparks political crisis in Buenos Aires