MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentine magistrates lash back at Cristina Fernandez accusations

“We reaffirm our institutional role” was the title of the letter released by judges and prosecutors responding to CFK’s position

Argentina's Association of Magistrates and Officials of the National Justice (AMFJN) has responded to recent statements by President Cristina Fernández who described the February 18 rally organized by prosecutors the “baptism of fire” of what she called the “Judicial Party.”

 “The Judicial is not a party but a Power of the State,” the AMFJN said in a statement warning of a “vulgar - but not for that less dangerous – pressure and conditioning attempt.”

“Those now accusing (us) of partisan have pretended fruitlessly to make of the Judicial Power and the AMFJN a party. They have even tried to distorting the objective and the functioning of the Magistrates Council,” judges added.

On Saturday, President Fernandez published a letter in her official website that was later released also in her official Twitter and Facebook accounts accusing judges and prosecutors of having led an “opposition rally,” marking the “baptism of fire” of the “Judicial Party,” referring to the so called 18F demonstration to honor late AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman who was found dead with a gunshot to his head on January 18.

“As they have not succeeded in that unless for a small part of its members,” the AMFJN’s document continued to say, “they tried – with even less success -, to fracture it. But they have only managed to strengthen it even more in its democratic and republican convictions.”

“We reaffirm our institutional role” was the title of the letter released by judges and prosecutors responding to CFK’s position, signed by the President of the AMFJN organization Ricardo Recondo, its Vice-President and Alejandro Sudera its Secretary General Marcelo Gallo Tagle.

“There is nothing but to repudiate the Manichean speech that under the appearance of denouncing divisions, it actually pretends to create them.”

“That who was a complaint to file on the performance of a magistrate or official, must do so if there is a violation of the firm rule of the 110 article of the National Constitution. If not, the reiterated and methodical threat – expressed or veiled -, results inappropriate for a republican system and only understandable as a vulgar – not for that less dangerous – attempt of pressure and conditioning,” the magistrates’ organization affirmed adding there are “no” coup supporters or judicial officials seeking to destabilize the federal government.

“Judicial officials, we, neither rule nor we deliberate; our mission (…) is to guarantee the validity of the Constitution and the institutions that it has built. That is the only task that gives us substance, direction and purpose.”