Glamorous ex-president sounds off in furious speech before being hauled to jail
Argentina's former president unleashed an all-time rant after the country's highest court upheld her six-year prison sentence on corruption charges - ripping into everyone from the current Argentine president to Donald Trump and Elon Musk.
Cristina Kirchner greeted thousands of supporters outside her party's headquarters in Buenos Aires on Tuesday night and slammed the Supreme Court 's three-judge panel decision.
The 72-year-old was found guilty in 2022 of awarding 51 public contracts for public works to companies that were tied to a close friend and convicted construction magnate.
The agreements were priced 20 percent above the standard rate in a scheme that cost the South American nation tens of millions of dollars, the government found.
Kirchner's administration carried out 'an extraordinary fraudulent maneuver' that harmed the interests of the government and resulted in the embezzlement of roughly $70 million at the current exchange rate.
In March, Kirchner, who served as president from 2007 to 2015 and was Vice President from 2019 to 2023 under President Alberto Fernandez, asked the court to review her sentence.
On Tuesday, judges Jorge Gorini, Rodrigo Giménez Uriburu and Andrés Bass – whom were all appointed by Kirchner, rejected her petition because the prison sentence 'does nothing more than to protect our republican and democratic system,' according to the resolution that was obtained by the Associated Press.
Kirchner spoke out against their decision as the crowd got riled up and shouted an expletive-laden chat directed at the judges.
'They are three puppets who respond to natural commands far above them,' Kirchner said. 'Let no one be confused because the worst thing is not the opposition either, it is the economic power concentrated in the Republic of Argentina.'
Kirchner did not stop there, going after current Argentine President Javier Milei and taking a thinly veiled shot at Trump, whom she accused of pandering to Elon Musk.
'He (Milei) is there because he was voted in, but when this puppet falls like the other puppet in the north, the friend of the chainsaw-wielding Elon Musk - look at the embarrassment and the mess, these things finally explode.'
Kirchner, whose husband Nestor Kirchner was president from 2003 to 2007, has been given five business days to show up in court and turn herself in.
The court also asked Argentina's security ministry to set up a detention center, where she is expected to be held.
'Being imprisoned is almost a certificate of political and personal historical dignity,' Kirchner said during the rally.
A supporter gestures holding a banner outside the house of former President Cristina Kirchner after Argentina's Supreme Court upheld her guilty verdict for defrauding the government
Kirchner's lawyers have asked the court to consider allowing her to serve her six-year sentence under home confinement because of her age and health condition.
The court ruling also means that Kirchner will be banned from running in this fall's Buenos Aires legislative elections just days after she launched her campaign.
Supporters of Kirchner and her political movement, known as 'Kirchnerism,' blocked main roads into Buenos Aires and stormed the offices of Argentina's two main cable networks that are widely considered critical of the ex-leader, Channel 13 and Todos Noticias, smashing televisions, vandalizing cars and shattering windows. There we no injuries reported.
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