The chambermaid who defines whether CFK goes to trial denied an agreement to continue in office

Chambermaid Ana María Figueroa, whose vote is key to defining whether Cristina Kirchner goes to oral and public trial in the Hotesur-Los Sauces casedenied that there is an agreement with Kirchnerism to rule in favor of the vice president in exchange for the Senate endorsing her continuity in office after 75 years.

“I don’t have any feedback with the Executive Power so that it gives my ruling if they give me the agreement or not,” Figueroa said this Wednesday when appearing at the public hearing of the Agreements Commission, chaired by camporista Anabel Fernández Sagasti.

Figueroa seeks an agreement from the Upper House to continue for five more years in Room I of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation, since in August he will turn 75, the age limit established in the National Constitution to hold the position. It is that, if he does not obtain an extension, he will have to retire.

For this reason, Figueroa attended the commission and, after harsh interrogation by the opposition, led by the radical Julio Martínez and the larretista Guadalupe Tagliaferri, the opinion was signed, where the Frente de Todos is preparing to impose its majority, with 10 senators (9 and one ally) out of a total of 17.

The conflict surrounding the Hotesur-Los Sauces case broke out when, at the end of November 2021, Federal Oral Court No. 5 dismissed Cristina and her children Máximo and Florencia, all of whom were investigated for alleged money laundering and association, without trial. unlawful

Given this decision, prosecutor Mario Villar asked the Court of Cassation to reopen the case, hold the oral and public trial, and revoke the dismissals. The decision was left in the hands of judges Diego Barroetaveña, Daniel Petrone and the aforementioned Figueroa.

Both Barroetaveña and Petrone have already cast their vote, but Figueroa has not yet done so and his delay raised suspicions. But, before the senators, the chambermaid emphasized that “it is an absolute lie” that she is “paralyzing” the Hotesur-Los Sauces cause.

“We are in the secret of the debate, I cannot refer to that topic because it could be the cause of challenges,” Figueroa excused himself. He clarified that “until Monday” he discussed the issue with his peers and assured that “a good consensus is being reached”, although he clarified that “it is complex to obtain a ruling with three different people and three different ideologies”.

When Martínez asked him if he was thinking of withdrawing from the case, he replied that “it is not the procedural opportunity in which one can be inhibited or excused.” But also, he categorically denied an agreement with Kirchnerism: “I don’t even know where the Instituto Patria works nor have I had conversations with the Executive Branch, of any kind.”

Previously, Tagliaferri had warned about journalistic statements by Figueroa in which he denounced that “there was judicial cruelty against the vice president”, after which the Executive Power sent its statement to the Senate for a new agreement.

Far from escaping the proposal, Figueroa ratified his sayings: “It is not usual for a person to be summoned to eight inquiries on the same day in Argentina. It is not reasonable. There was no other case in the history of the country, ”he said in relation to the request of the late judge Claudio Bonadio against Cristina.

Anyway, the chambermaid faced her defense. “If there is something that no one can object to about me, it is my impartiality,” she boasted, and insisted: “I have no feedback from the Executive Branch so that it gives my ruling if they give me the agreement or not.”

In another segment of the hearing, Tagliaferri ironically warned that Judge Eduardo Riggi, a historical member of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation, “did not have the same luck” as Figueroa, since he turned 75 and the Executive never sent his document to the Senate.

In turn, the radical Martínez questioned the supposed change in doctrine of Kirchnerism, which promotes Figueroa after having tried to remove Judge Carlos Fayt, who continued on the Court well beyond the age of 75 (he resigned at 97 and one year later passed away).

The head of the pro-government interblock, José Mayans, picked up the gauntlet: “The Pope is 80 years old, the president of the United States, who is now running again, too, and Fayt was 95 (when they wanted to remove him). He didn’t even speak anymore, he used signs. You (to Figueroa) are full and wanting to continue contributing”.

“We need people like you in the Judiciary, who do not allow themselves to be pressured by the power of the media or by the judicial mafia or by the political sectors kneeling before those powers,” concluded Mayans.

Figueroa has served in the Chamber of Cassation since November 2011, when he obtained the first agreement from the Senate. At the beginning of his presentation, she claimed responsibility for his work in lawsuits and rulings related to gender and human rights issues.