Latest news with #CristinaFernández
The Independent
21 hours ago
- Politics
- The Independent
Latin America and Caribbean week in pictures
June 6-12, 2025 Argentina's highest court upheld a six-year prison sentence for former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a ruling that permanently banned her from public office over the corruption conviction that found she had directed state contracts to a friend while she was the first lady and president. Miguel Uribe, a conservative Colombian presidential hopeful, was in critical condition after being shot in the head from close range during a campaign rally. People created a human chain along a Rio de Janeiro beach shore as part of a symbolic group hug with the sea to mark World Oceans Day. Brad Pitt donning a buzzcut arrives at a red carpet premiere in Mexico City to promote his latest film, 'F1: The Movie'. This gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the past week by The Associated Press from Latin America and the Caribbean. The selection was curated by AP photo editor Anita Baca, based in Mexico City. ___ Follow AP visual journalism: AP Images blog:
Associated Press
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Latin America and Caribbean week in pictures
June 6-12, 2025 Argentina's highest court upheld a six-year prison sentence for former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in a ruling that permanently banned her from public office over the corruption conviction that found she had directed state contracts to a friend while she was the first lady and president. Miguel Uribe, a conservative Colombian presidential hopeful, was in critical condition after being shot in the head from close range during a campaign rally. People created a human chain along a Rio de Janeiro beach shore as part of a symbolic group hug with the sea to mark World Oceans Day. Brad Pitt donning a buzzcut arrives at a red carpet premiere in Mexico City to promote his latest film, 'F1: The Movie'. This gallery highlights some of the most compelling images made or published in the past week by The Associated Press from Latin America and the Caribbean. The selection was curated by AP photo editor Anita Baca, based in Mexico City. ___ Follow AP visual journalism: AP Images blog: Instagram:
Irish Times
3 days ago
- Politics
- Irish Times
Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner jailed for corruption in Argentina
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Argentina's former president and one of the country's most polarising political figures, has been sentenced to prison and barred for life from public office after the Supreme Court upheld her corruption conviction. The ruling is likely to deepen political tensions in the country and comes after Ms Fernández, who was the target of an assassination attempt three years ago, announced plans for a political comeback. Supporters blocked key highways around the capital, Buenos Aires, before the court decision against the left-leaning Ms Fernández, who has clashed repeatedly with Argentina's right-wing president, Javier Milei , while major labour unions had threatened national strikes. The Supreme Court rejected an appeal by Ms Fernández in a 27-page ruling, cementing a six-year sentence handed down by a lower court that had found she defrauded the state during her two terms as president, from 2007 to 2015. READ MORE Ms Fernández (72), is unlikely to serve significant prison time as Argentine law often allows house arrest for those over age 70. The lower court, which will determine if she gets home detention, said she had five business days to present herself before the tribunal to be officially detained. The former president could be held behind bars at a police station for a few days until a judge approves her home detention, said Andrés Gil Domínguez, a constitutional law professor at the University of Buenos Aires. Ms Fernández told supporters outside her party's headquarters shortly after the court ruling, 'This Argentina we're living in today never ceases to surprise us.' She called the three members of the Supreme Court 'puppets' and characterised them as 'a 'triumvirate of disgraceful figures' who answered to powerful economic interests, and said they were now 'imposing a clamp on the popular vote.' As for Mr Milei, he wrote, 'Justice' on the social platform X and reposted several messages that celebrated the ruling. A fixture in Argentine politics for more than three decades, Ms Fernández remains a divisive figure. While much of the country views her presidency as synonymous with economic mismanagement and corruption, she continues to command a loyal base that credits her with expansive social programmes. Ms Fernández, who was also vice president from 2019 to 2023, has faced numerous charges of corruption. She was convicted in 2022 of steering public roadworks contracts in a southern province to a family friend and business associate. She has rejected the charges as politically motivated, accusing opponents of weaponising the judiciary to curb her influence. The court determined that the scheme had began under her husband and predecessor, Néstor Kirchner, and continued during her two presidential terms. He had been governor of southern Santa Cruz province and served as president from 2003 to 2007. He died in 2010. Since 2024, she has led the Justicialist Party, the main opposition force to Mr Milei and the largest political platform for Peronism, the populist, nationalist movement that has shaped much of Argentina's modern political history. Mr Milei has frequently blamed Ms Fernández, as well as her husband, for years of economic mismanagement and systemic corruption that sent the country into a downward economic spiral. Mr Milei won office in 2023 by vowing to slash public spending and overhaul Argentina's state-heavy economy. Ms Fernández recently announced that she was running for a seat in the Buenos Aires provincial legislature in elections this year. She would have been a heavy favorite, and a victory would have granted her immunity from serving the sentence. 'Coincidence is not a political category,' she told supporters as she prepared for the decision from Argentina's highest court. 'It only took us announcing a candidacy a week ago for the demons to be unleashed.' She characterised efforts to imprison her as a way to quiet her criticism of Mr Milei's right-wing economic policies, which have included broad austerity measures. 'Go ahead, throw me in prison,' she said. 'Do you really believe this will fix anything? I might be behind bars, but people will be worse off by the day.' During her trial in 2022, supporters gathered outside her Buenos Aires apartment every day to show solidarity. In September of that year, a man at the entrance to her building pointed a loaded pistol at her head at close range. The weapon jammed and she was uninjured. The accused gunman and two others are facing trial. The former president faces several other legal issues, including accusations of money laundering, orchestrating a corruption scheme involving public works and conspiring with Iran to cover up its suspected role in the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. - The New York Times . 2025 The New York Times Company
Washington Post
3 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Argentina's former president Cristina Kirchner is sentenced to prison
Argentina's Supreme Court has upheld a six-year prison sentence against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the polarizing former president and one of the country's most influential politicians, barring her from public office for life. Kirchner, 72, was formally charged with corruption Tuesday, and given five days to present herself before the court to be arrested.
The Hill
3 days ago
- Politics
- The Hill
Argentina's Supreme Court upholds prison sentence for ex-President Cristina Fernández
BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina's Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld the 6-year prison sentence on corruption charges for former President Cristina Fernández. The court ruling disqualifies the leader of South American country's opposition movement, known as Peronism, from holding public office. It left Fernández, one of Argentina's most important political figures of the past two decades, at the brink of an arrest by authorities. Fernández governed for eight years after succeeding her husband in 2007. Under her watch, Argentina became notorious for its unbridled state spending and massive budget deficits. She was found guilty by a federal court in 2022 of having committed a millionaire fraud during her presidency through irregular allocation of state funds to a businessman close to her. Fernández had asked the court for a review of the prison sentence in March, which three judges of the high court rejected. Tuesday's court decision means that Fernández will not be able to compete in September for a seat in the legislature in the country's capital, as she had announced. The sentence 'does nothing more than to protect our republican and democratic system,' the court wrote in a resolution provided to The Associated Press. As the ruling was announced, supporters of Fernández and her political movement blocked main roadways into Buenos Aires. Fernández quickly rejected the decision, calling the court justices 'puppets' of those wielding economic power in the country. 'They're three puppets answering to those ruling far above them,' she told supporters outside her party's headquarters in the capital. 'It's not the opposition. It's the concentrated economic power of Argentina's government.' Argentina's far-right President Javier Milei celebrated the ruling, writing in a post on X: 'Justice. Period.' The ruling dealt a blow to Fernández's political movement. She said the day before that even if she is in jail, Peronism will live on in resistance to Milei, whose austerity measures stand in stark contrast to the policies implemented during her leadership. Fernandez's defense is expected to request she serve her sentence in house arrest, given she is over 70 years old. Gregorio Dalbón, one of Fernández's legal representatives, said that 'we are going to take this case to all international human rights organizations: the Inter-American Commission and Court, the UN Human Rights Council' and more. The court case, which began in 2016, centered on 51 public contracts for road works under Fernández and her late husband, former President Néstor Kirchner. The contracts were awarded to companies linked to Lázaro Báez, a convicted construction magnate and friend of the presidential couple, at prices 20% above the standard rate. According to the court, the governments 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. Fernández has questioned the impartiality of the judges and claimed that much of the evidence was gathered outside legal deadlines and that her legal defense didn't have access to it. Fernández also faces a number of other upcoming trials on corruption charges. ____ Associated Press journalists Almudena Calatrava y Débora Rey contributed to this report from Buenos Aires. ____ Follow AP's coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at
