A march against the Supreme Court of Argentina and with calls for judicial reform brought together thousands of people in downtown Buenos Aires this Tuesday (1st). Most of the protesters who gathered in front of the capital’s obelisk to walk to Praça Tribunales were activists, supporters of Peronism and trade unionists.
Many posters attacked judges Horacio Rosatti and Carlos Rosenkrantz, respectively president and vice president of the Supreme Court. Both were appointed by Mauricio Macri in 2015, initially by decree – then the appointment followed the regular procedure, with approval by the Senate. To this day, the magistrates are considered politically positioned against Kirchnerism.
Government spokeswoman Gabriela Cerruti stated that the administration “does not officially take a position” in relation to the protests, but noted that Alberto Fernández has already presented proposals on the Judiciary that he hopes to see advance in his administration. The possible reform does not include the replacement of Supreme Court justices and has more to do with the decentralization of courts across the different provinces — without all federal cases having to be resolved in Buenos Aires.
Shortly before leaving for a trip to Russia and China, the president said that “the demonstration is legitimate and citizen”, and not political. Fernández this week faces the beginning of what could be a new political crisis in his coalition, after congressman Máximo Kirchner resigned as government leader in the Chamber for disagreeing with the recent agreement made with the IMF.
One of the central banners of the march is to replace the judges of the highest instance of Justice. According to organizers, the current names are practicing “lawfare”, that is, determining convictions based on political interests. “The main demand is to end ‘lawfare’ in Argentina, and we have to end it with the people on the street, forcibly removing these judges from this miserable court”, said union leader Luis D’Elia.
Despite the language, the activist promised a peaceful movement. With him in the organization of the brand were other representatives of Kirchnerism — not by chance, they are all the target of lawsuits.
D’Elia, for example, was sentenced in 2017 to four years in prison for breaking into a police station in the Boca neighborhood and “attacking against authority”. He’s on parole. Another organizer involved with Justice is Juan María Ramos Padilla, involved in the so-called “corruption notebooks” scandal, which investigates whether during the Kirchner years in the presidency — with Néstor and then Cristina, between 2003 and 2015 — there were illicit deliveries of money to bribes.
Hebe de Bonafini, 93, one of the founders of the Avós da Praça de Maio organization, also linked to this Tuesday’s march, is responding to a lawsuit for embezzling funds for the construction of popular housing, which would have been in the hands of the human rights entity.
Despite not speaking out in support of the march, the current vice-president Cristina Kirchner urged her most faithful officials to encourage the militancy to “rethink their relationship with Justice and say what Justice wants”. Among these authorities are the Minister of Security, Aníbal Fernández, investigated for a corruption scheme linked to the diversion of medicines, his deputy, Juan Martín Mena, and the head of the intelligence system, Cristina Caamaño.
Cristina herself, who since the beginning of her term has accumulated some judicial victories, with the extinction of processes, still has four lawsuits open that could complicate her life. Pressure from the vice president also plays a role in the fact that Fernández is trying to reform the judiciary.
Amado Boudou, who was Cristina’s deputy, was on the march this Tuesday and was greatly applauded. At the end of the walk, the protesters sang the national anthem.
Other banners that are summoning the population and militancy this Tuesday call for an “end of impunity” and for processes to run more quickly.
“They are giving a political label to this march, but this is wrong. It is a demonstration called by citizens, who want an independent justice. The current structure does not respond to ordinary citizens”, said Leopoldo Moreau, deputy from the ruling alliance. .
The CGT (General Confederation of Labor), the country’s main union of unions, said it would accompany the march because “it is in the interest of all workers to have a more independent justice”, according to its president, Pablo Moyano.
The opposition strongly criticized the event. The Juntos por el Cambio alliance, owned by former president Mauricio Macri, said in a document that the protest has “extreme institutional gravity”. “It is another step in the systematic policy that the government has taken to attack judges who do not behave according to their wishes,” the text reads. “It’s a coup attitude.”
Deputy Paula Oliveto said that she had made a complaint of sedition against the deputy minister of Justice, Juan Martín Mena. The politician supported the march and made a speech calling for the dismissal of the judges. “It is not possible for a demonstration with these characteristics to be endorsed and encouraged by senior government officials”, criticized the parliamentarian.
Source: Folha
