In a political twist that shakes the national board, Encuentro Federal deputy Miguel Ángel Pichetto launched an explosive request: that the National Congress declare the conviction of former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the Vialidad case null and void and order her immediate release. The former Peronist senator described the case as of «extreme fragility» for Argentine democracy and did not hesitate to question every link in the judicial process that led the former president to house arrest.
«Having a figure who was twice president and once vice president of the Nation imprisoned puts democracy in a situation of extreme fragility,» Pichetto wrote on his X account, in a post that quickly went viral. The legislator, who was Cristina’s running mate in 2019, now stands as one of her staunchest defenders in Congress.
But he did not stop there. Pichetto detailed a series of alleged irregularities that, in his view, vitiate the ruling from the start. «The rules were altered from day one: a judge from another court was brought in, a prosecutor whose destination was Rosario to judge drug traffickers was brought in, and the possibility of appeal was limited,» the deputy denounced. For him, there was «no impartiality» in the trial and he stressed that «the Supreme Court judges should have recused themselves because they had faced impeachment proceedings promoted by the accused’s own party.»
Pichetto’s request is not a simple lost tweet in the vastness of the network. Last Wednesday, the deputy had already brought these same concerns to the Congressional Human Rights and Guarantees Commission, where he demanded the intervention of legislators in the case. «Faced with so many irregularities and an incomplete court, Congress cannot sit idly by. We have the power to intervene in the face of such institutional gravity to declare the nullity of a flawed ruling and uphold the balance of powers,» Pichetto argued before his peers.
The former president is currently serving a six-year prison sentence in the Vialidad case, after the sentence became final and was upheld on appeal by the Supreme Court. The sentence has been served under house arrest for a year at her home on San José 1111 in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Constitución. Meanwhile, hardline Kirchnerism celebrates Pichetto’s gesture, although some sectors view it with distrust: is it a true ideological shift or a political move to position himself ahead of the elections?
The fact is that the Peronist deputy’s request reopens the debate on judicial independence and the role of Congress in cases of high political impact. The question that remains floating is whether legislators will dare to meddle in a final judicial ruling, or whether it will all become a new chapter in the Argentine political novel.
Para mí esto es un choreo judicial de la derecha, Milei y sus secuaces vendepatria quieren encarcelar a Cristina para tapar su ajuste. Pichetto la ve clara, tener presa a una ex presidenta es una cagada democrática. ¡Libertad ya carajo, esto huele a lawfare!
Para mí esto es un escupitajo a la justicia. Pichetto se mamó, quiere liberar a la chorra de Cristina. Tener presa a una exjefa de Estado es justicia, no fragilidad. Este país se va al carajo con estos traidores. A la cárcel con ella y todos los kirchos. Viva la libertad carajo.