However, the most significant impact came from the Supreme Court of Justice, which on Tuesday upheld the conviction against former President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner in the Vialidad case, marking an institutional milestone: the former president must return to the State more than 84,000 million pesos (185,188,679 pounds).
The decision of the highest court confirms the sentence of the Federal Oral Court No. 2 of 2022 and its subsequent ratification by the Criminal Cassation Chamber. The ruling not only establishes six years of imprisonment and permanent disqualification from holding public office, but also orders the historic forfeiture of $84,000 million (185,188,679 pounds), equivalent to the embezzlement proven through the fraudulent awarding of public works contracts to companies owned by Lázaro Báez, especially in the province of Santa Cruz.
The multimillion amount that Cristina Kirchner must pay as a result of her conviction is calculated based on rigged tenders, advance payments, overpricing, and unfinished works, all under her direct administrative and political responsibility. The former president intervened through decrees such as PEN No. 54/2009, which allowed the discretionary use of road trust funds to benefit Austral Construcciones.
The Court, with the signatures of judges Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkrantz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti, considered that the defense's arguments failed to undermine the compelling evidence. Cristina Kirchner was found guilty as a co-perpetrator of aggravated fraudulent administration, and the sentence now becomes enforceable, marking a point of no return in the accountability of former Kirchnerist officials.
