MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

CFK supporters, metropolitan police clash in Buenos Aires

CFK left Massa and Fernández to bear the political costs

Supporters of Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) and Buenos Aires Metropolitan Police clashed in the Buenos Aires uptown Recoleta neighborhood late Saturday in an episode riddled both with violence and with political consequences for Argentina''s future.

Buenos Aires Police, who report to Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta of the opposition Juntos por el Cambio (JxC) of former President Mauricio Macri, fired tear gas and used water cannons against the crowds gathered at the doorsteps of CFK's apartment to express their support after prosecutors requested she be sentenced to 12 years in jail for her alleged involvement in a case of corruption during her back-to-back presidencies (2008-2015).

CFK, 69, was indicted along with twelve other defendants for the crimes of aggravated illicit association and fraudulent administration in the bidding of public works.

There were no specific reports as to how many people were arrested after the incidents.

Clashes began when CFK supporters tore down the fences set up by the police. “The fences put up by Mr. Larreta are something more than preventing free circulation. They are something more than besieging the Vice President of the Nation,” CFK said on social media. Those fences were deployed by the opposition to “prohibit the absolutely peaceful and joyful demonstrations of love and support, which take place in the face of the already undeniable persecution of the judiciary party,” she went on.

Acá vemos cómo Máximo Kirchner con la violencia que lo caracteriza comienza a atacar a los policías. Este es el video que quería evitar que se difunda. Esto son. pic.twitter.com/wKa9rMzCzZ

— Diego Álzaga Unzué (@atlanticsurff) August 28, 2022

Many officials such as Buenos Aires Governor Axel Kicilof and Federal Intelligence Agency (AFI) Chief Agustín Rossi criticized the use of fences and insisted nothing would have happened had it not been provoked by the police.

President Alberto Fernández has already been questioned for his unconditional support to CFK amid alleged veiled threats to Prosecutor Diego Luciano, whom he likened to the late Alberto Nisman who was found with a bullet to his head in his apartment just hours before telling Congress about a case he had built against CFK.

A local TV reporter told Uruguay's Telenoche that “there is a political violence that has not been seen for decades.”

“We are very used to resisting in peace. We are also not going to let them get away with it and lay siege to the place where the vice-president lives,” Presidential Spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti, who was among the demonstrators, said.

In other parts of the country such as Tucumán, Córdoba, and Rosario thousands gathered and demonstrated peacefully.

Following these incidents, it became clear to many analysts, that CFK has repositioned herself as a leading figure in Argentine politics and is most likely to vie for the job at Casada Rosada next year after having retaken full control of Peronism.

In his regard, Luciani, who wants her jailed, has become her mentor, since after his jail request all Peronist leaders have sided with CFK and expressed their support, turning Superminister Sergio Massa's economic maneuvering into a riddle, since everything he does, from negotiating with the International Monetary Fund, meeting with White House officials, and downing government expenditures to a minimum is quite unperonist.

While the economic reactivation did not reach most Argentines, the emotional reactivation has been ignited after budgetary adjustments from a government that had promised there would be none and orthodox economists with obscure backgrounds appointed to key positions, which heralds meager food plates for the working class.

CFK has thus left Massa and Fernández to bear the political costs while offering herself as an alternative for 2023 unless she is convicted and disenfranchised, which would spark a crisis of unforeseeable consequences.