Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who does not attend in person but via Zoom—a luxury the justice system grants her, along with unlimited phone use to rail against 'lawfare'—never misses an opportunity to paint the scene as a medieval circus.
'Dictatorship methods?'
From the comfort of her apartment in the Recoleta neighborhood, where she is serving house arrest with an electronic ankle bracelet but has full rights to type on her phone and step onto her balcony for her usual political monologues, the Peronist leader has raised the tone of her defense in the 'Notebooks' case. Cristina links her lament with the economic crisis of Javier Milei's government, which she accuses of 'rapidly' reopening the 'Notebooks' case to stage a 'circus' to cover up galloping inflation. But Cristina, immune to the tedium of facts, prefers melodrama. Cristina refers to the statements of lawyer Roberto Herrera, a defendant's defender who, as he told TN, spent a month under an incessant spotlight, filmed 24/7 and disoriented between day and night. But from her privileged balcony, the echo of her words resonates more as a belated lament than as a convincing argument. It's only someone from her penthouse with a view of the Río de la Plata who seeks to distract from the confessions of 24 repentants who point to her as the head of the criminal association. And the show doesn't stop there.
All of this is served in a lengthy post on her social media, just hours before a new virtual hearing in the corruption trial where she is the central figure. The dramatism is understandable: the Federal Oral Court 2, which sentenced her in June to six years in prison for the 'Vialidad' case and barred her from holding public office for life, now presides over this mega-trial for alleged million-dollar bribes during her governments. Of course, she forgets the 2001 default she inherited and multiplied, or the debt she left as a legacy to Macri. Cristina, with her recycled dictatorship rhetoric, seems to be betting on eternal polarization: either with me or against the homeland. Well then: the main clown is still on the marquee, and the divided audience applauds or boos according to the script. In this context, the reopening of the case is not only political revenge but a reminder that justice, however slow it may be, moves forward. INDEC reported yesterday a 2.3% monthly increase, which annualized climbs to 27.6%, and she contrasts it with her golden era: 'Salaries and pensions were the highest in Latin America, and we didn't owe a single dollar to the IMF'.
