Buenos Aires, Argentina — Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld the conviction of former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the corruption case known as “Causa Vialidad.” The justices rejected the defense’s plea on June 10 to review the case and confirmed the second-stage conviction, which includes a six-year prison sentence. Fernández de Kirchner can request to serve the sentence under house arrest, as allowed for convicts over age 70. The decision also bars her from running for office, as she had planned to do in this year’s legislative elections in Buenos Aires province.
The decision was signed unanimously by Supreme Court justices Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz and Ricardo Lorenzetti, leaving no formal appeal process for the former vice president and two-time former president. Argentina’s top court rejected both the defense’s plea to overturn the conviction and the prosecution’s request to extend the sentence to 12 years.
Hours after the Supreme Court ruling, Federal Oral Tribunal No. 2, the court that issued the original conviction against the former president, gave Fernández de Kirchner five days to present herself to make the sentence effective. While prosecutors requested her immediate detention, she is likely to receive the benefit of serving the sentence under house arrest.
The Supreme Court took up the case in late 2024, following a lengthy judicial process that began in 2016 after allegations of corruption involving a number of public works projects in the Patagonia region during Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s presidency (2007–2015). On Dec. 6, 2022, months after a failed assassination attempt outside her own home, the then–vice president was convicted by Federal Oral Tribunal No. 2. The six-year prison sentence and ban from holding public office were upheld by an appellate court on Nov. 13, 2024.
Argentina’s top court had been expected to take up the case after the October elections. Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, current president of the Justicialist Party, announced in a June 3 interview that she intended to run for the Buenos Aires province legislature. The Supreme Court’s decision sent shockwaves across the political spectrum, as she remained the party’s main hope to challenge candidates aligned with President Javier Milei.
“The rulings issued by the lower courts were based on extensive evidence and the Penal Code enacted by Congress, with no showing that the appealed decision failed to constitute a reasoned application of current law in accordance with the specific circumstances of the case, nor that any constitutional guarantee was violated during the process. Due process has been safeguarded, and the appellant received a judgment grounded in law,” the Supreme Court justices wrote in their 27-page verdict.
The decision comes months after President Javier Milei failed to fill the two remaining seats on the Supreme Court. In early April, the Senate rejected the nominations of Ariel Lijo and Manuel García-Mansilla, largely due to votes from the Justicialist bloc led by Fernández de Kirchner.
The ruling was rejected as “proscriptive” and politically motivated by all sectors of the Justicialist Party and leaders of leftist parties. In the lead-up to the decision, supporters of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner held protests at various locations across Buenos Aires, including the Justicialist Party headquarters and her home in the Constitución neighborhood, while labor unions blocked highways on the outskirts of the city.
“Javier Milei’s government set a wage cap, and now the judicial party adds a cap on the popular vote,” Fernández de Kirchner told the crowd gathered in front of the Justicialist Party headquarters on Tuesday afternoon, moments after the ruling was announced.
“In reality, this cap isn’t imposed by this trio of disgraceful figures who act as a fiction of the Supreme Court. Don’t be mistaken — they are three puppets responding to powers far above them,” she added.
“Let no one be confused. It’s not the opposition either. It’s the concentrated economic power of the Argentine Republic,” the former president said.
President Javier Milei celebrated the ruling with a moderate message instead of his usual verbosity. “Justice. The end,” he posted on X. “The Republic works, and all the corrupt journalists, accomplices of lying politicians, have been exposed in their schemes regarding the alleged impunity pact,” he added.
The decision was also praised by former President Mauricio Macri, leader of the PRO party, who has long called for convictions against Fernández de Kirchner. “Finally, after a very long period, the impeccable work of the justice system culminates today with this historic ruling. Argentines should be at peace because the mechanisms of the Republic were expressed freely,” he wrote on X.
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