Cristina Kirchner's six-year prison sentence divides Argentines

This Tuesday, June 11, late in the afternoon, the three Argentine judges of the Supreme Court put "an end to the political career of Cristina Kirchner," according to El País America, from Buenos Aires.

Argentina's highest court has upheld and enforced the former president's conviction for corruption in the awarding of public contracts to her stronghold of Santa Cruz (Patagonia) during her two terms (2007-2015): six years in prison and a lifetime of ineligibility, with a ban on holding any public office.

There is no longer any legal recourse: the leader of the Peronist opposition has until next Wednesday to surrender to justice. Her age, 72, will allow her to avoid prison and serve her sentence at home (Argentine law allows this for anyone over the age of 70).

“No Argentine president has ever been imprisoned in a corruption case with a conviction ratified by the Supreme Court,” recalls El País America . “Carlos Menem served almost six months in house arrest in 2001 for illegal arms sales to Croatia and Ecuador, then under international embargo, but the Supreme Court never heard his case. He was eventually released and died in freedom twenty years later, while serving as a senator.”

It is the culmination of a judicial process lasting almost seventeen years, and a thunderbolt in Argentina, where the figure of the former president still divides opinion.

“The country experienced this Tuesday [June 11] one of those days that history will record as unique, and that society will remember even when time has largely passed, writes the conservative daily La Nacion. […] This is about justice, not persecution.”

While her detractors, who had been waiting for this court decision for many years, expressed their joy on social media (the hashtag #CristinaLadrona [“CristinaThief”] was at the top of the topics discussed on X), the former president's supporters mobilized all night to support her in several places across the country, notably in front of her residence in Buenos Aires.

“Tears, tears, and a tireless vigil,” headlined the progressive daily Página 12. “I feel terrible helplessness and rage,” a woman who attended the vigil, which drew several thousand people, told the newspaper. “We have a corrupt Supreme Court; this is lawfare [use of the judicial system for political persecution] at all costs. The people must react; it can't end like this.”

The former president has stepped out onto her balcony several times to greet the crowd, and has accused the three Supreme Court justices of being “a triumvirate of unworthy individuals,” who merely obey the orders of “concentrated economic power,” as El País America quotes her as saying.

In Argentina, many people do not accept the sentence, which they consider "undemocratic," as the left-wing news site La Izquierda Diario headlines . The Supreme Court has politically proscribed Cristina Kirchner.

The term lawfare comes up very frequently. “This type of instrumentalization of justice is reminiscent of the 'Lava Jato' case in Brazil, where highly questionable legal accusations were used to politically displace Lula da Silva and the Workers' Party (PT), marking a worrying trend for the region,” says La Izquierda Diario .

The far-right Argentine president, Javier Milei, responded with a terse message on X: “Justice. End.”

But is this really the end for Cristina Kirchner? She remains a key opposition figure and, since her captivity, could continue to influence Argentine politics. This is especially true since the popular mobilization may be subject to change, with several support marches having been announced for Wednesday, June 12.