Argentina top court upholds six-year prison sentence for ex-president Kirchner

Argentina's top court effectively banned two-term former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner from office and upheld a six-year jail sentence, likely drawing a curtain on one of the country's most flamboyant and divisive political careers.

Kirchner, 72, a polarizing opposition figure and leftist president from 2007 to 2015, was convicted by a trial court in 2022 for a fraud scheme that steered public road work projects in the Patagonia to a close ally while she was president.

The ruling scuppers Kirchner's plans to run in Buenos Aires provincial legislative elections, but could galvanize her divided Peronist opposition coalition, which has been licking its wounds since being ousted in 2023 by current libertarian President Javier Milei.

The Supreme Court's three judges rejected Kirchner's appeal and left in effect an appellate court decision that had upheld the guilty verdict. A lower court will decide whether to grant Kirchner house arrest due to her age.

"The complaint is dismissed," the Supreme Court said in a ruling. Kirchner has denied wrongdoing and claims she is a victim of political persecution.

In Buenos Aires, her supporters blocked roads across the city. Some banged on drums. Others carried banners with the image of Evita Perón, the wife of Juan Perón, the founder of the political movement who was known as a defender of the poor.

"A triumverate of unpresentables," Kirchner said of the Supreme Court judges after the ruling, speaking before thousands of supporters who rallied in downtown Buenos Aires outside the headquarters of her Peronist Justicialista party.

Kirchner's shadow looms large over the Peronist movement, which needs to identify a new generation of leaders.

"The fact that she goes to jail and can't be a candidate doesn't eliminate her political movement," said political analyst Carlos Fara. "Obviously though it won't be the same."

A government source said that it could both weaken or strengthen the opposition. Peronism "can either entrench itself or break into a thousand pieces," the person told Reuters.

Prosecutors accused Kirchner of directing hundreds of millions of dollars to construction magnate Lázaro Báez. During her government and that of her late husband, Néstor Kirchner, companies tied to Báez were awarded dozens of government contracts for roadwork projects in Patagonia but nearly half of them were abandoned, prosecutors said.

Báez and other officials were sentenced to prison terms.

Peronism and Kirchner's popularity have suffered in recent years. She served as vice president in 2019 under President Alberto Fernández, whose government oversaw a slide into economic crisis by overprinting pesos that led to sharp spike in inflation.

But she has still been able to maintain a hardcore support base, particularly from working-class voters who relied on government subsidies under her and her husband's governments.

"As a figure she's not been overshadowed on the political scene by anyone," said Carolina Barry, an expert on Peronism at the Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero in Buenos Aires. "Her words resonate with many groups."

Kirchner has been sharply critical of Milei's austerity, accusing him of cutting pensions and defunding public education. Milei has shot back that he would "love to bang the last nail in the coffin of Kirchnerismo, with Cristina Kirchner inside."

"Justice," wrote Milei on X after the verdict on Tuesday.

Alejandro Carrió, a constitutional and criminal law expert in Buenos Aires, said that even if Kirchner serves the sentence under house arrest, it was unclear "if with time she'll lose the clear leadership she's held for years".

Kirchner faces charges in several other criminal cases and is scheduled to stand trial in November on accusations that she led a large-scale bribery scheme.

She's not the first Argentine president to face a criminal conviction, joining, among others, former President Carlos Menem, who was sentenced to over four years in prison for embezzlement of public funds during his presidency in the 1990s. As a senator, congressional immunity protected him from prison.