Cabinet ministers accuse opposition of judicial ‘prostitution’

CABINET FOR CRISTINA Interior Minister Eduardo ‘Wado’ de Pedro alleges Juntos por el Cambio has corrupt ties with the Judiciary, which he likens to sex work.

Cabinet ministers came out in defence of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner this week, defending the vice-president against the corruption allegations against her in the courts and likening the opposition’s alleged secret ties with the Judiciary to sex work.

Launching a fiery rebuttal of the ongoing ‘Vialidad’ trial investigating alleged graft in the awarding of public works tenders in Fernández de Kirchner’s home province of Santa Cruz during her two terms in office as president, government officials said the charges against her were part of an attempt to politically and judicially persecute the vicepresident.

Interior Minister Eduardo ‘Wado’ de Pedro accused the government’s political opponents of having a direct influence over the Judiciary in Argentina.

The comments are in line with recent signs of support from President Alberto Fernández.

“We reaffirm and we are convinced of the interference of the Cambiemos government in the Judiciary to generate impunity,” alleged De Pedro, referring to the predecessor of the opposition Juntos por el Cambio coalition.

Seated next to Cabinet Chief Juan Manzur and other ministers, De Pedro likened alleged relations between the Judiciary and the opposition coalition to “prostitution.”

He continued: “We have been saying that the persecution of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has nothing to do with crimes under the criminal

code, but rather it is a persecution that has to do with the electoral code. They are persecuting the leader with the greatest political volume in Argentina, a person who was twice president and is current vice-president for the things she has done well.”

De Pedro, a leader of the Kirchnerite youth organisation La Cámpora, said that there are “sectors of power in Argentina that do not accept that a political leader responds to the will of the people.”

For his part, Manzur said that he trusts in the former president’s innocence and, in a more moderate tone, said the country should “wait for justice to speak.”

Moving on to other judicial matters, De Pedro took aim at the Supreme Court over the national government’s fight with the Buenos Aires City government over ‘coparticipación’ federal revenue-sharing funds, accusing the justices of “speaking for the media.”

“This new logic worries us and, as they say that the City of Buenos Aires is pressuring for a new ruling on such and such a day. This level of prostitution among some sectors worries us,” he declared.

“We have to continue correcting a profound imbalance between cities that have everything and some that have nothing,” he said. “That is what the Court is going to have to resolve, if it agrees to the political and media lobby of the City of Buenos Aires, or if we continue to maintain an Argentina that has to invest in the deep interior” of the country.