In an official statement from Casa Rosada, President Alberto Fernández released the response he sent to Deputy Attorney General Eduardo Casal about the letter in which the official stated that the statements of the head of state were “a clear disturbance in the exercise of his functions.” I must point out that these expressions in no way can be interpreted in the sense of wanting to condition the actions of an official and this is clear since they were poured out when the Prosecutor of the case had already finished his argument in the process,” Fernández argued in his defense and insisted that both the Judicial Branch and its judges and officials “are not and could not be exempt from criticism and opinions in a democratic society”.
Deputy Attorney Eduardo Casal.
In turn, Fernández again equated the judicial situation of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner with that of former Brazilian President Luiz Inácio “Lula” da Silva, who was “unjustly convicted and imprisoned, and therefore banned from participating in the elections.” As the Supreme Federal Court of Brazil concluded, it was in fact a judicial, media and political persecution that had the purpose of making Lula not a candidate,” he continued, saying that “it is of the utmost importance that the opinions that warn about the dangers that can lurk in democracies are formulated in a timely and public way.”
Letter from Alberto Fernández to Deputy Attorney General Eduardo Casal.
Then, the President questioned the “double standard to measure institutional facts” of Attorney General Casal. And he recalled: “He has not worried him, nor has he seen any interference when former President Mauricio Macri, while in office, received the accused Luis Chocobar at the Casa Rosada and, while the trial in which he ended up being convicted was going on, he published on his official Twitter account that ‘we accompany him and that we trust that justice in another instance will free him from all charges, recognizing their bravery.'” He also recalled when the Attorney General also did not call Macri when he “instructed his Minister of Justice to initiate the impeachment of Judge Alejo Ramos Padilla” and publicly criticized his lack of “equanimity.” In this case it was not simply the opinion of the former president, but an express request for the dismissal of a judge who was just beginning an important investigation into serious illegal espionage actions,” he said.
The response of the President of the Nation to the letter sent to him in due course by the acting deputy prosecutor in charge of the Attorney General of the Nation is shared below. pic.twitter.com/KXOd2g6cyM — Casa Rosada (@CasaRosada)
August 26, 2022
And he added with a little irony: “The zeal shown in your letter Mr. Attorney General regarding the care of criminal proceedings would have been important, for the democratic health of our country, that it was also reflected in promoting transparent investigations regarding the real motivations that had some visits made by prominent members of the Judiciary to former President Mauricio Macri to the Quinta de Olivos and in the Casa Rosada,” and in the role that the fugitive Pepín Rodríguez Simón and other former officials had in the so-called “Judicial Table” of the Macri government.For Fernández, this “systematic asymmetry in the positions adopted by some important magistrates” makes it “even more necessary that these debates be opened to take care of the health of democracy.” “Democracy is nourished and strengthened by critical opinions, which must be defended even in strong dissent. No one demands that these opinions be shared, but that they be able to express themselves freely,” the President concluded.
