MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Maduro sends letter of support to CFK

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro sent a letter expressing his solidarity to Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) after prosecutors requested a 12-year jail sentence against her.

The Venezuelan leader also promised to defend the “heiress of Evita” saying that the “Bolivarian and Chavista Venezuela will always defend you, comrade” from what he describes as a “real and truly abominable farce” set in place by judiciary forces.

Prosecutor Diego Luciani has requested a 12-year jail sentence against CFK and her disenfranchisement for life for allegedly heading an illicit association that defrauded the state with the irregular granting of contracts to businessman Lázaro Báez.

Maduro also said the charges against the former Argentine President were part of a “new Condor Plan,” in reference to the CIA-backed initiative during the second half of the 20th Century when military dictatorships were encouraged and supported financially and otherwise to overthrow leftwing governments elected in the Americas.

According to Buenos Aires daily Clarín, Maduro's letter carries particular weight amid the legal conflict over the Venezuelan-flagged Emtrasur freighter seized since June 8 at the Ezeiza international airport for its alleged involvement in Iran-sponsored terrorist activities worldwide.

“I want to express my absolute solidarity with you in the midst of this fierce combat you are waging against the enemies of your homeland. I deeply admire the nobility with which you have faced such a gale of insults hurled against you, the most worthy heiress of Juana Azurduy and Evita. Your enemies know very well that you are, today, the main sentinel of Argentine sovereignty and the strongest guardian of the interests and dreams of your People,” Maduro wrote.

“They want to destroy you dear Cristina, or at least neutralize you because you are a retaining wall, a bulwark against the miseries and lies of the stateless. I am certain that the truth will prevail in your case against the ominous and grotesque lawfare. And that the new Condor Plan that our brother Rafael Correa has denounced so much will be definitively defeated,” he went on.

Other leftist presidents, such as Cuba's Miguel Díaz-Canel, Gustavo Petro of Colombia, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Luis Arce of Bolivia and Xiomara Castro of Honduras, sent messages of support to the Argentine vice-president.

Petro and Arce have stressed the judiciary “harassment” stemmed from an interest to “bury” their political ideas.

CFK has always denied any wrongdoing and said the case against her was politically motivated.