Brazil's Lula visits Fernández de Kirchner under house arrest in Argentina
Fernández had asked the court's permission to receive Lula, a longtime political and ideological ally. Lula was in Buenos Aires for the summit of the regional Mercosur trade alliance and made the short trip to Fernández's home in Argentina's capital after the meeting concluded.
Lula was inside with Fernández for just under an hour and they did not appear publicly together.
It was not Lula's first show of support for Fernández since Argentina's Supreme Court upheld her sentence last month. He had called her to express his support after her conviction.
Fernández had been convicted of directing state contracts to a friend while she was the first lady and president. The sentence also permanently bans her from holding public office.
Fernández dominated Argentine politics for two decades and forged the country's main left-wing populist movement known as Kirchnerism, after her and her husband, former President Néstor Kirchner.
Lula has also faced imprisonment. While he was held in a police station in Curitiba in 2019, also for corruption, he received then-Argentinian presidential candidate Alberto Fernández, a political ally of Cristina Fernández who is not related to her. Lula's conviction was later overturned.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Bloomberg
3 hours ago
- Bloomberg
US Recalls Top Colombia Diplomat as Once-Warm Relations Sour
US-Colombia relations took a turn for the worse Thursday with both sides recalling their top envoys and the South American country's foreign relations minister quitting unexpectedly. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called Chargé d'Affaires John McNamara back to Washington for urgent consultations, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Thursday. She cited 'baseless and reprehensible statements' from the highest levels of the Colombian government, without elaborating on what these were.
Yahoo
8 hours ago
- Yahoo
Lula visits former Argentinian president under house arrest in snub to Milei
Brazil's president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, has eschewed a one-on-one meeting with the Argentinian president, Javier Milei, during a trip to Buenos Aires, instead opting to visit Milei's political rival, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who is under house arrest. Lula was in the Argentinian capital on Thursday to attend the Mercosur summit. He arrived at Kirchner's flat – which in recent weeks has become something of a pilgrimage site for her supporters – at about 12.30pm and spent roughly 45 minutes there. There had been speculation that the two might appear together on the balcony from which Kirchner, 72, often waves to sympathisers, but that moment never came. Kirchner, who served as Argentina's president from 2007 to 2015, was convicted over the irregular awarding of public road contracts to a businessman close to her family – a scheme that, according to the courts, cost the public purse an estimated $500m. The ruling also barred her from running for any political office. Kirchner, who denied all the charges against her, was sentenced to six years in prison for corruption in June. Due to her age, judges granted her house arrest, but with a series of restrictions, including the requirement that all visits be authorised in advance – as was the case with Lula, whose visit was approved by a judge the day before. Shortly after 1pm, Lula, 79, left the residence without speaking to reporters, greeting a few dozen supporters waiting outside before departing for the Brazilian embassy. Kirchner, who claims to have been the target of political persecution, posted photos of the meeting and wrote: 'Lula was also persecuted, they also used lawfare to put him in prison, they also tried to silence him. They couldn't. He returned with the vote of the Brazilian people and his head held high. That's why today his visit was much more than a personal gesture: it was a political act of solidarity.' Related: Former Argentinian president Cristina Fernández allowed to serve corruption sentence at home Earlier in the day, he had formally received the rotating presidency of Mercosur – the regional trade bloc whose full members are Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, with Bolivia in the process of joining and Venezuela currently suspended – from Milei. The near-total absence of a relationship between Lula and Milei was summed up in the closing moment of the summit: after shaking hands, Lula moved in for a hug, which Milei only registered belatedly – resulting in a stiff, uncomfortable embrace. The two, who delivered opposing speeches at the summit and hold conflicting positions on issues ranging from climate change – which Milei denies – to the Israel-Palestine conflict, have never held private talks. Milei has in the past called Lula a 'communist' and 'corrupt', and the Brazilian did not attend his inauguration. In 2024, Milei left the Mercosur summit in Paraguay early to travel to Brazil and meet Lula's main political rival, former president Jair Bolsonaro, during a Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) event. Within Lula's circle, the visit to Kirchner was seen both as a response to Milei's gesture in 2024 and a symbolic act of solidarity, echoing the 580 days Lula spent in prison on corruption charges that were later overturned by the supreme court. While Kirchner never visited Lula in prison, he was visited in 2019 by Alberto Fernández, who went on to win that year's presidential election with her as his running mate.
Yahoo
10 hours ago
- Yahoo
US, Colombia recall top diplomats as rift deepens
The United States and Colombia called home their respective envoys on Thursday in an apparent acceleration of worsening ties, against the backdrop of an alleged plot against Colombia's leftist leader. Washington went first, recalling its charge d'affaires John McNamara "following baseless and reprehensible statements from the highest levels of the Government of Colombia," State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said, without giving specifics. In addition to McNamara's recall, Bruce said the United States "is pursuing other measures to make clear our deep concern over the current state of our bilateral relationship." She did not detail the actions. Within hours, Colombian President Gustavo Petro announced he was calling home his top diplomat in Washington in response. Ambassador Daniel Garcia Pena "must come to inform us of the development of the bilateral agenda," Petro wrote on X, such as tapping South America's "great potential for clean energy" and the fight against "drug lords and their international finances." The diplomatic spat came on the heels of the resignation of Colombia's foreign minister earlier Thursday -- the latest top-ranking official to exit Petro's government. "In recent days, decisions have been made that I do not agree with and that, out of personal integrity and institutional respect, I cannot support," Laura Sarabia, Petro's former chief of staff, wrote on X. - Plot investigation - Colombia was until recently one of the United States's closest partners in Latin America. But ties have sharply deteriorated. Colombian prosecutors opened an investigation this week into an alleged plot to overthrow Petro with the help of Colombian and American politicians, following the publication by the Spanish daily El Pais of recordings implicating former foreign minister Alvaro Leyva. "This is nothing more than a conspiracy with drug traffickers and apparently, the Colombian and American extreme right," Petro said on Monday. In late January, the United States briefly suspended consular services to retaliate for Petro's refusal to allow US military planes to return Colombian migrants to their homeland. Petro accused the United States of treating the migrants like criminals, placing them in shackles and handcuffs. The pair issued threats and counter threats of crippling trade tariffs of up to 50 percent. A backroom diplomatic deal involving the deployment of Colombian Air Force planes to collect the migrants averted a looming trade war at the eleventh hour. Colombia's leftist government also recently refused a US request to extradite two prominent guerrilla leaders wanted by Washington for drug trafficking. als-lb/ksb/acb
