President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva (PT) will have a separate meeting with the Vice President of Argentina, Cristina Kirchner, on Monday (23), during a trip to the country, according to two sources interviewed by Reuters.
Away from President Alberto Fernández, Cristina should not participate in the Brazilian leader’s meeting at Casa Rosada, seat of the Argentine government. The vice-president celebrated the PT’s electoral victory in October on the networks and, soon after, called Lula, when they would have arranged a meeting for as soon as possible.
Cristina led Argentina from 2007 to 2015 and always had a good relationship with the Brazilian president. During the period in which Lula was imprisoned, she was one of the politicians in the region who defended the PT’s freedom.
Now, she faces legal proceedings in her country. In December, she was sentenced in the first instance to six years in prison for corruption, accused of benefiting a businessman from Santa Cruz —the Kirchners’ home province— when she was in office and during the term of her husband, Nestor Kirchner.
In his social networks, on the day of the sentence, Lula showed solidarity with Cristina and spoke of a “judicial hunt”.
“I express my solidarity with President Cristina Kirchner and her collaborators who have done so much for the Argentine people and for South American integration. It is worrying the true judicial and media hunt launched against this companion whom I admire and esteem so much”, he wrote.
The president arrives in Buenos Aires early this Sunday evening (22) for an official visit to the country, where he will participate in the CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) summit.
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