Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega sent a letter of solidarity to Cristina Kirchner after the conviction for corruption

Rosario Murillo and Daniel Ortega

The Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega; and his wife Rosario Murilloexpressed their solidarity with the vice president of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, after being sentenced to six years in prison for corruption. Through a brief letter, they expressed their support for Argentine politics.

“Cristina, Compañera: to you, with admiration, respect and affection, in these difficult moments, when your courage and that of your People show themselves once again, defiant and capable of transcending the miseries, and of growing, even more, in the historical dimension that has made them, and makes them great”, the letter begins.

And he concludes: “Our Solidarity in all struggles and in the Always Beyond, unyielding, lucid, of formidable and profound spirituality. Sure that we continue to win, count on us. Strong and Fraternal Hugs”.

The letter is signed by Daniel Ortega and Rosario Murillo.

The Vice President of Argentina was sentenced this Tuesday to 6 years in prison in a trial for irregularities in the concession of road works during the Kirchner governments (2003-2015).

When passing sentence in a trial that had begun in May 2019, the Federal Oral Court 2 also sentenced the former president to the penalty of perpetual disqualification to hold public office.

The judges found Cristina Kirchner guilty of the crime of fraudulent administration of public fundsbut they acquitted her in the charges for alleged illicit association.

The penalty set for Kirchner in the so-called “Cause Road” is less than the 12-year prison term that the Prosecutor’s Office had requested last August in the final arguments of this process.

The oral court also ordered the confiscation of the effects of the crime, which consist of a sum of 84,835 million pesos (482 million dollars).

Cristina Kirchner
Cristina Kirchner

The 69-year-old former president, who in principle enjoys immunity until December 2023 due to her position in the Executive, has the right to appeal the sentence to higher courts.

In this process, irregularities in the concession of 51 public works to signatures of the employer Lazaro Baez during the governments of the deceased Nestor Kirchner (2003-2007) and Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner (2007-2015) in the southern province of Santa Cruz, the political cradle of Kirchnerism.

In addition to sentencing Cristina Kirchner, the court also imposed a 6-year prison sentence for Lazaro Baezformer Secretary of Public Works Jose Lopez and the former head of the National Highway Directorate Nelson Perioti.

It also imposed various sentences of between 3 and a half and 5 years on the former holders of National Highway in Santa Cruz Mauricio Collareda Y Raul Daruichto the former presidents of the Provincial Road Agency in Santa Cruz Raul Pavesi Y Jose Raul Santibanez Already Juan Carlos Villafaneformer mayor of the southern city of Río Gallegos and former president of Vialidad de Santa Cruz.

On the other hand, the court acquitted Julio De VidoMinister of Federal Planning of Argentina between 2003 and 2015; Abel Fatala, former Undersecretary of Public Works of Argentina; Y Hector Garroformer president of the Provincial Road Agency in Santa Cruz.

In the case of Carlos Kirchnercousin of former President Néstor Kirchner and former head of the Federal Public Works Coordination Undersecretary, the judges acquitted him for the crime of illicit association and dismissed him for breach of the duties of a public official, considering that this crime had prescribed.

The vice president, who in recent years has circumvented the requests for preventive detention issued against her in various cases -in many of which she was dismissed- thanks to the privileges that protect her, has always defended her innocence and has claimed to be the target of judicial and political harassment.

In its final stretch, the trial was shaken by the attack suffered by Cristina Kirchner on September 1, when a man tried to shoot her at the doors of her home in Buenos Aires, while a group of supporters demonstrated their support for the vice president at the Judicial process.

Keep reading:

Nicaraguan dictator Daniel Ortega sent a letter of solidarity to Cristina Kirchner after the conviction for corruption