Buenos Aires, Argentina — Former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was placed under house arrest on Tuesday following the Argentine Supreme Court’s decision last week to uphold her conviction for corruption.
One of the most prominent political figures in Argentina in the past decade, Fernández de Kirchner is to serve a total of six years in custody and has been barred for life from running for public office.
A polarizing yet lasting figure in Argentine politics, Fernández de Kirchner is the widow of former President Néstor Kirchner and was elected president for two terms herself from 2007 to 2015. She also served as vice president under Alberto Fernández and leads the main opposition party to current President Javier Milei.
While serving as vice president in 2022, Fernández de Kirchner was convicted of graft involving public works projects issued during her tenure as president to a businessman in the southern Santa Cruz province. The conviction was upheld by an appellate court last year, and the Supreme Court last week.
“The applied sanctions are those determined by the current legal system,” read the Court’s judgment. “The imposition of prison sentences and disqualification does nothing other than protect our republican and democratic system according to the criminal laws enacted by the representatives of the people in the National Congress.”
The prosecution, led by attorneys Diego Luciani and Sergio Mola, had originally sought prison time for Fernández de Kirchner, however, the presiding judge, Jorge Gorini, granted her house arrest on the grounds of her age (Fernández de Kirchner is 72), and because of a September 2022 attempted assassination attempt she survived when the assailant’s gun failed to fire.
Following last week’s ruling, Fernández de Kirchner’s Judicialist Party supporters denounced the upholding of the conviction as politically motivated and “proscriptive” as she had planned to run for Buenos Aires provincial legislative elections in September.
A rally in support of the former president will take place today in the Plaza de Mayo main square.
“Nothing is suspended,” Juan Grabois, an activist and supporter of Fernández de Kirchner, said on X regarding the rally. “The solidarity action in favor of Cristina and human rights doesn’t get called off for any reason — no matter what the media, judges, police, firefighters or leaders say.”
Politicians in her orbit find the ruling troubling. Former President Alberto Fernández told Argentina Reports that the ruling was a problem “for all of society” and urged the international community to demand that Argentina “respect constitutional guarantees.”
“The conviction of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner must serve as a call for collective reflection,” he said. “If we allow the Argentine justice system to act in this way, we face a very serious problem: the disregard for constitutional guarantees that puts the rule of law itself at risk.”
He added, “This must be a concern for all of society, because we cannot remain impassive when due process is violated and an innocent person is convicted.”
Fernández de Kirchner and Alberto Fernández had a public falling out ahead of the 2023 general elections that paved the way for Milei’s victory. Despite their differences, Alberto Fernández maintains that the Court’s ruling puts constitutional guarantees at risk.
“I am speaking this way not because I got along wonderfully with Cristina,” he said. “I speak this way because what they are making her endure is unjust, and because I want to live in a state governed by the rule of law, as a democratic republic demands.”
Following the Court’s decision last week to uphold the conviction, Milei wrote on X: “Justice. The End. P.S.: The Republic is functioning, and all the corrupt journalists, accomplices of lying politicians, have been exposed in their operettas about the supposed pact of impunity.”
According to the court ruling, Fernández de Kirchner will be remanded to her home in the Constitución neighborhood of Buenos Aires, and must present a list of family, lawyers, doctors and security personnel that will be permitted visits. She’ll also be required to wear an ankle bracelet monitoring device.
Neighbors had previously complained about media and supporters camped outside of the former president’s residence and the municipality told the judge that the “neighborhood lacks the operational capacity for a permanent security detail without serious detriment to the general interest.”
The court ordered the former president to “refrain from adopting behaviors that may disturb the tranquility of the neighborhood and/or disrupt the peaceful coexistence of its residents.”
Featured image: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner greeting supporters on June 7, 2025. Image credit: Cristina Fernández de Kirchner via X.
