Cristina Kirchner and Dilma Rousseff warn of "lawfare" - the judiciary as a weapon against opponents

Last edited Tue Dec 12, 2017, 03:07 AM - Edit history (3)

Speaking in Buenos Aires, former presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil warned that right-wing administrations in Latin America and elsewhere are increasingly relying on a weaponized judiciary to silence adversaries.

"This is a process known worldwide as Lawfare," Kirchner said, "involving the use of the judicial system as a weapon to destroy politics and opposition leaders."

"The media plays a fundamental role, and is central to this strategy of persecution," she added.

The former heads of state met yesterday in Mrs. Kirchner's Buenos Aires apartment to discuss their countries' political and social situation.

"The objective is the same in Brazil as in Argentina," they agreed. "To hide the economic disaster that neoliberal (i.e. pro free-trade) governments are carrying out in the region."

Both women, two of the leading populist figures in the region, have faced down repeated trial-by-media attacks by their countries' largely conservative news outlets while their right-wing successors, Mauricio Macri and Michel Temer, receive favorable coverage and often have corruption charges dismissed by the courts - including documented cases involving the Panama Papers.

Rousseff, 70, was impeached in August 2016 by conservative majorities in Brazil's Congress over alleged fiscal accounting gimmicks to mask the country's yawning budget deficits.

Her successor, Vice President Temer, was later charged with corruption and obstruction of justice - as were most of his cabinet and the congressional leadership that instigated her impeachment.

No sooner Kirchner, 64, returned to elected politics by winning a Senate seat this October, she was accused of having asked Interpol to lift Red Notices against Iranian officials implicated in the 1994 AMIA terrorist attack in Buenos Aires.

The three year-old claim, dismissed by Argentine courts in seven instances - including two appeals - was revived on Thursday by Federal Judge Claudio Bonadío, who indicted Mrs. Kirchner for “treason” and asked that the Senate expel her in order to facilitate her arrest.

“A biased Judge Bonadío report cannot change the truth,” fomer Interpol head Ronald Noble tweeted yesterday. “INTERPOL was never asked by Argentina or (former Foreign Minister Héctor) Timerman to remove the AMIA Red Notices!”

Bonadío, who has dismissed numerous corruption charges against Macri, was exposed in 1996 as a “napkin judge” - a shortlist of judges who lent themselves to politicized trials at the behest of then-President Carlos Menem.

At: https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=auto&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.diarioregistrado.com%2Fpolitica%2Fcristina-se-reunio-con-dilma-rousseff---utilizan-a-la-justicia-como-arma-para-destruir-a-la-politica-_a5a2c5dc0a4d76178ffbd2cad&edit-text=

Former presidents Cristina Fernández de Kirchner of Argentina and Dilma Rousseff of Brazil discuss their experiences with right-wing 'lawfare' during Rousseff's Buenos Aires visit yesterday.