FROM EIR DAILY ALERT
London Puts Former Argentine President Fernández de Kirchner in the Crosshairs
June 2, 2018, 2018 (EIRNS)— Yesterday the provisional President of the Argentine Senate Federico Pinedo called a special session for June 5 to discuss lifting the parliamentary immunity from former President and now Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. This comes two days after President Mauricio Macri suffered a stinging defeat in the Senate, which passed the bill to lower utility rates retroactively to levels of last November, prior to this year’s astronomical increases, demanded by the IMF. Macri vetoed the bill as promised.
The timing here is key. The June 5 date will be two days prior to the expiration of the sleazy Judge Claudio Bonadio’s Dec. 7, 2017 order that Fernández’s immunity be lifted so she can be sent to pre-trial detention in the case of the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish social center in Buenos Aires, in which she is accused of covering up Iran’s role.
The British Empire is behind this travesty. They intend to railroad Fernández into jail, as they did earlier this year with her Brazilian ally, former President Lula da Silva. Both leaders, along with deposed Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff, stood up against IMF looting of their countries; the three had led their countries into economic cooperation with China, Russia, and other New Silk Road nations.
Pinedo’s call also came just hours after the Buenos Aires Federal Appeals Court ruled that the suspicious Jan. 19, 2015 death of federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman was definitely a homicide and not a suicide—for which no evidence has ever been provided—asserting that Nisman’s death was related to the document he presented a few days earlier charging Fernández with protecting Iran in the AMIA case. The implication is that Fernández ordered him killed.
The Justicialista/Peronist party, while no Fernández ally, has made known it will oppose any attempt to lift her immunity.
This is a desperate move by Macri’s London backers. Fernández was a vocal proponent of the Senate bill that Macri vetoed, and has gained in popularity as Macri’s approval rating has plummeted as a result of the economic disaster his policies have produced. His reelection chances for 2019 are dimming, while social and labor protest against his seeking an IMF bailout is sweeping the country. Yesterday, Finance Minister Nicolas Dujovne announced new austerity measures that will especially affect the state sector—7,000 employees will be fired—and slash the budget for any new public works contracts. These $800 million in cuts are the first of $8 billion the IMF is demanding.
The slogan in a protest yesterday captures the popular rage: “Macri shithead...there’s a gorilla in the Pink House,” (Pink House being the presidential palace, and “gorilla” is the term referring to right-wing military fascists).
