Protesters have denounced the leader’s incarceration and ban from public office as an act of political retribution.
A federal court in Argentina has granted former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner house arrest to serve her six-year sentence for corruption charges.
On Tuesday, the court decided that the 72-year-old Fernandez’s age and visibility as a political figure made house arrest a reasonable option for her confinement.
Just three years ago, in 2022, the popular left-wing leader faced an assassination attempt, wherein an assailant aimed a pistol at her head. The court cited such dangers in its decision, saying Fernandez’s safety “would become complex in a situation of prison confinement in coexistence with any type of prison population”.
It is not uncommon for courts in Argentina to permit house arrest for individuals of advanced age as well.
The former president’s house arrest must begin immediately, the court ruled. It also explained that she would be subject to electronic monitoring. She will serve out her sentence at her apartment in Buenos Aires that she shares with her daughter and granddaughter.
Fernandez, the court said, “must remain at the registered address, an obligation that she may not break except in exceptional situations”. Any future visitors to the apartment — outside of household staff, healthcare workers and other approved individuals — will have to be vetted by the court.
The former president’s incarceration comes after Argentina’s Supreme Court last week upheld her conviction and barred her from running for public office ever again.
She was found guilty in 2022 of using public works projects, including roadways, to give beneficial contracts to a close associate of her family, Lazaro Baez. Prosecutors said the contracts awarded to Baez had rates 20 percent higher than normal — a sum that could translate to millions of dollars.
Other scandals have dogged her political career, including accusations of bribery and money laundering. Some of those cases continue to be weighed by Argentina’s judicial system.
But Fernandez has dismissed the allegations against her as political attacks. She had been preparing to launch a bid in this year’s legislative elections, until the ban on her candidacy.
Fernandez served as Argentina’s president from 2007 to 2015, after succeeding her husband, the late Nestor Kirchner.
In 2019, four years after she left the Casa Rosada — the “Pink House” of the presidency — Fernandez returned to the executive branch as vice president to Alberto Fernandez, another left-wing politician.
Both Fernandez and Alberto Fernandez — who share no familial relation — faced sharp criticism for their management of Argentina’s economy, including their heavy reliance on government spending and their devaluation of the country’s peso through the printing of excess currency.
But particularly among working-class Argentinians, Fernandez continues to enjoy substantial popularity, particularly for her investments in social programmes to alleviate poverty.
Since 2024, Fernandez has led the Justicialist Party, the main pillar of opposition against the government of current President Javier Milei, a libertarian. He took office in 2023, succeeding Alberto Fernandez.
Faced with Fernandez’s incarceration, supporters of the former president took to the streets in Buenos Aires to protest over the past week, calling her lifetime ban from public office an act of political retribution.
