The Supreme Court upholds the former president’s six-year prison sentence, in addition to her perpetual ban from holding public office.
EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana / Buenos Aires, 11 June 2025 — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel expressed his “unwavering support” for former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner on Tuesday after learning that the country’s Supreme Court upheld her sentence of six years in prison and a lifelong ban from holding public office.
“We reaffirm our unwavering support for Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the face of this political judicial process,” the Cuban president wrote on social media. “Strength, dear Cristina,” he added.
Díaz-Canel stated that “once again, the justice system is being used for political reasons, as an instrument of the right against progressive leaders in the region.”
Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez also expressed Cuba’s “firm solidarity” with Fernández on social media using the hashtag #TodosConCristina and considered the conviction “a clear act of revenge and threat.” “We reiterate our support for the Argentine people in defense of sovereignty and dignity,” the minister stressed.
“We reiterate our support for the Argentine people in defense of sovereignty and dignity,” the minister stressed.
Argentina’s Supreme Court rejected the former president’s appeal and upheld the 2022 conviction for irregularities in the awarding of road works contracts. The former president could be detained in the coming hours or days to serve her sentence.
In 2022, a court sentenced the former president to six years in prison and a lifelong ban from holding public office in the so-called “Roads Infrastructure case.” The conviction was for fraudulent administration to the detriment of the State.
The Criminal Cassation Chamber upheld that ruling last year, and on Tuesday, the three members of the Supreme Court unanimously upheld the ruling by rejecting an appeal filed by Fernández’s defense.
In addition, the court also upheld Fernández’s acquittal on the charge of criminal association, after rejecting the Prosecutor’s Office’s request to increase her sentence to up to twelve years in prison.
According to the 27-page Supreme Court ruling, to which EFE had access, the sentences handed down by the previous courts were based on the “extensive evidence produced” and the Penal Code, without demonstrating “in any way” that the appealed decision was contrary to law or that any constitutional guarantee was violated during the proceedings.
“Due process has been upheld, and the appellant has obtained a judgment based on law,” the members of the Court stated.
According to the 27-page Supreme Court ruling, to which EFE had access, the sentences handed down by previous courts were based on the “extensive evidence produced.”
The ’Roads Infrastructure case’ focused on irregularities in the awarding of 51 road construction projects in the province of Santa Cruz (south) to firms owned by businessman Lázaro Báez during the governments of then-President Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007), the husband of the former president who died in 2010, and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (2007-2015).
During the investigation phase of the case, the court determined that nearly 85% of the Santa Cruz road contracts were awarded to Lázaro Báez, a personal friend of Néstor Kirchner.
The oral court that sentenced the former president in 2022 included among the grounds for the sentence that “the incontrovertible profits obtained” by businessman Báez “do not exhaust the economic advantages that this fraud yielded, since part of the money disbursed by the State was ultimately destined for the former president’s family businesses.”
This Tuesday, the Court noted in its ruling that the judgment alluded to the fact that Lázaro Báez, through companies he controlled, signed rental and management contracts with Kirchner family companies that operated hotels, in addition to having conducted other real estate deals.
According to the Court, these relationships were not challenged by Fernández’s defense, beyond arguing that the commercial acts were “completely lawful and carried out at market prices,” which, in the Supreme Court’s view, “reduces any effectiveness of the argument.”
According to the ministers of the Court, these circumstances led to the conclusion that the awarding of the road works contract to Báez involved a presidential decision that “relegated the economic advantage for the public administration to the economic advantage for private interests.”
The Court also noted in its ruling “various flaws” in the defense’s presentation. Among them, it noted the listing of various judges and prosecutors or meetings with certain executive branch officials “without indicating a single specific circumstance that would reasonably allow one to infer that the impartiality of the judges in this specific case has been compromised.”
The former first lady has also called on the militants to “stand by the people in need” and has warned that she will stay to “put her face and body on the line.”
In addition, according to the Supreme Court, the defense also failed to indicate “how the fear of bias it sought to avoid would have been manifested, and the issuance of a ruling adverse to its interests was not sufficient to achieve this.”
Fernández de Kirchner, in a speech at the headquarters of the Justicialist Party, which she heads, stated that the Supreme Court judges who upheld her conviction “are three puppets who answer to those above them” and that their decision represents a “block to the popular vote,” given that the former president had planned to run in the legislative elections in September.
In addition, the former first lady also called on the militants to “stand by the people in need” and warned that she will stay and “put her face and body forward.” “We are not mafia members,” she said, while also considering that “being imprisoned is a sign of dignity.”
Argentine president Javier Milei quickly reacted to the news through his profile on the social network X, where he asserted that “justice” has been achieved. Milei, now in Israel on an international tour, stated that “the republic is functioning, and all the corrupt journalists complicit with lying politicians have been exposed in their operettas about the supposed pact of impunity.”
In the country, there were numerous demonstrations on Tuesday by his coreligionists.
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