MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Cristina Fernandez corruption trial set to begin next week postponed until May
Cristina Fernandez is accused of having favored businessman Lazaro Baez in the attribution of 52 public works contracts worth 46 billion pesos (US$ 3.3bn) 
Senator CFK, with partial parliamentary immunity, claims to be the victim of political persecution from the government of President Mauricio Macri. (Archive) The corruption trial of former Argentina president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, CFK, set to begin next week, has been postponed until May, authorities said on Monday. It is one of several corruption trials facing the opposition Peronist politician, who turned 66 on Tuesday.
In this case, she is accused of having favored businessman Lazaro Baez in the attribution of 52 public works contracts worth 46 billion pesos (US$ 3.3bn) during the 2007 to 2015 period when she was president.
Next Monday, she is also due to appear before judge Claudio Bonadio to answer questions relating to the “corruption notebooks” case in which she is accused of having received tens of millions of dollars in bribes.
Cristina Fernandez, now a senator with partial parliamentary immunity, claims to be the victim of political persecution from the center-right government of President Mauricio Macri. The two are widely expected to lock horns in an election battle in October.
The favoritism case had been scheduled to proceed on Tuesday next week but has been postponed until May 21, as one of the judges due to hear the case needs an operation in the coming days. Baez and other officials are being held in pre-trial detention.
Cristina Fernandez was ordered to be held in pre-trial detention over the corruption notebooks case but her partial parliamentary immunity protects her from imprisonment, although not prosecution.
The corruption notebooks scandal revolves around the meticulous records kept by a government chauffeur, Oscar Centeno, of cash bribes he is said to have delivered from businessmen to government officials.
Prosecutor Carlos Stornelli has said a total of US$160 million in bribes was handed over between 2005 and 2015.
Meanwhile, authorities ordered the detention of Cristina Fernandez' former vice-president Amado Boudou. Last August, Boudou was sentenced to almost six years in prison for “passive bribery” and conduct “incompatible” with his duties as a public servant, but he was then released on bail in December.
That related to his attempt to buy a company that printed currency through a front business while serving as Cristina Fernandez' economy minister.
Anti-corruption authorities appealed the decision to release him on bail, and the federal chamber of cassation agreed that his liberty presented a “procedural risk.”
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Read all comments“...the consequences have been devastating”
Feb 25th, 2019 - 06:25 pm +1Let us (again) look at some data: https://tradingeconomics.com/argentina/indicators
Over the last 5 years, here is are my observations on the data to address your points above:
Unemployment = seasonal variations but no clear trend
Inflation = A disaster
GDP constant prices = seasonal but increasing trend
Balance of trade = recent upward trend. Positive.
Capital flows = Negative but reducing trend
External debt = Appears to have peaked and now reducing
Government budget = Clear reducing trend
Foreign direct investment = After some wild oscillations, it now seems to be on a gradually increasing trend with a big peak a few months ago
Feel free to check the data yourself. I've tried not to cherry-pick just the good bits and I am not an economist but it looks like Macri might be starting to pull the Argentine economy out of the hole dug by CFK's unsustainable policies.
“come October, the Argentines will at least know Macri promises' worth.”
Didn't the last opinion polls show that it was very close?
The fact that some 20%-30% of Argentine population would vote for CFK in 2019 should be the final nail in the conversation whether “people vote their own best interest”.
Feb 21st, 2019 - 10:02 pm 0Or as Einstein said: Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the universe.
Kamerad/Komrade Rique, the José Goebbels of Mercopress, is desperate to get that money flow back if only La Asesina can get back in power.
Feb 26th, 2019 - 08:36 am 0Time for the RCMP to investigate him as an undeclared foreign agent... :)
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