They Persecute Us for Seeking Social Justice: VP Fernandez

“Ultimately, I don't care if they convict me, disqualify me or send me to jail. What matters to me is to rebuild a democratic state," Cristina Fernandez-Kirchner said.

On Tuesday, Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez-Kirchner affirmed that the judicial persecution against her is due to the fact that progressive politicians fight for social justice.

"They don't persecute us because we are populists... They persecute us because we seek greater equality and justice in societies and we demand the right of workers to participate in what they produce," Fernandez-Kirchner said, making implicit reference to the redistributive policies that she implemented was president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015.

The elites "will never forgive us for the reconstruction of the economy and what we were able to do in favor of human rights... They will never forgive us," she said and recalled that a court ruling prohibiting her from running for president in the October elections.

Fernandez-Kirchner explained that Argentina's progressive governments of the 20th century were harassed by the military acting as if it were a political party. In this century, however, progressive and democratic politicians are harassed by the judiciary, which is used by the elites as if it were their party.

The "lawfare" or selective judicial persecution "cannot be understood without the media. The sentence is written by the media. Then a prosecutor prepares the accusation and a judge signs the sentence," the leftist leader said, emphasizing that she will not stop seeking the construction of a democratic country even at the risk of being imprisoned.

“Ultimately, I don't care if they convict me, disqualify me or send me to jail. What matters to me is to rebuild a democratic state, in which constitutional guarantees are not letters painted on a piece of cardboard,” she said.

These statements occurred during her speech at the meeting "Popular Will and Democracy: From the Military Party to the Judicial Party," which was organized by the Puebla Group in Buenos Aires.

Conceived as an expression of support for the Argentine vice president, this meeting brought together former presidents Rafael Correa (Ecuador), Evo Morales (Bolivia), Ernesto Samper (Colombia), Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero (Spain), and Jose Mujica (Uruguay).