The Vice President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, has tested positive for coronavirus, as announced by the Puebla Group, which has confirmed that a meeting in which the leader was to participate next Monday has been postponed.
«The meeting of Grupo de Puebla ‘Popular will and democracy. From the military party to the judicial party, threats to democracy’, which was scheduled to take place on December 12, is postponed to December 19,» said the organization. «This postponement is due to the fact that Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has tested positive for COVID-19. Cristina is in good health in El Calafate,» it added on its Twitter account.
The diagnosis has been confirmed by collaborators of the also president of the Senate, who have pointed out in statements to the Argentine state news agency, Télam, that «Cristina Fernández de Kirchner has tested positive in a COVID-19 test». «She is in good health in El Calafate», they reiterated.
The Argentine vice-president was sentenced on Tuesday to six years in prison and perpetual disqualification from holding public office for a corruption offense, in the framework of the so-called ‘Vialidad cause’, although the sentence can still be appealed. After the ruling, Fernandez de Kirchner denounced being the victim of a «parallel State» and of «a judicial mafia».
Fernández de Kirchner had been accused of participating in a scheme to defraud the State through the concession of public works in the province of Santa Cruz during her administration as president (2007-2015) and that of the former president and her late husband, Néstor Kirchner (2003-2007).