The Nisman Case in Argentina Continues to Focus Attention

Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita's decision to go forward with Alberto Nisman’s case set the stage for more political maneuvering. Some commentators argue that the political crisis worsened with the accusation of concealment against President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Yet others claim Nisman’s original charge of a cover-up of an alleged government plan to shield Iranian officials from the investigation into the 1994 AMIA bombing was baseless. (Economy Minister Axel Kicillof described Alberto Nisman’s claim as “inexplicable nonsense.”) CFK turned to social media for support, and many commentators point to political motivations for the continued push in the Nisman case, while evidence indicates that Nisman's death may actually have been a suicide after all.

MercoPress of Montevideo reiterated that before his mysterious death prosecutor Alberto Nisman had accused the President CFK, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, and others in her administration of brokering the cover up in exchange for favorable deals on oil and other goods from Iran. The Argentine president has strongly denied the accusations, and Iran has repeatedly denied involvement in the bombing, which killed 85 people and injured over 300. Prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita presented his findings to Judge Daniel Rafecas, the federal magistrate assigned to the case. Rafecas will ultimately decide whether to dismiss it or send it on to trial.

Even before Pollicita's decision, amid rumors that it was coming, the administration was moving to both reject and minimize it. Presidential spokesman Aníbal Fernández said moving the case forward was a “clear maneuver to destabilize democracy,” but that ultimately, “it has no legal value. It does not matter.” Both CFK and Timerman have immunity as serving members of the executive branch. In order to bring them to trial for these charges, a judge would authorize a political trial – a proceeding somewhat analogous to an impeachment in the United States.

Semana Magazine of Bogotá wrote that Pollicita says there was “a criminal plan to provide impunity” to the Iranian defendants in this case and to evade the investigation, which would have been a “conscious decision” taken by CFK. The crimes imputed to the president and other defendants, he claims, were an attack on independent judicial activity. Jorge Capitanich, the president’s chief of staff, called the charges an “active legal coup.” Her political opponents were ‘maneuvering for destabilization,” presidential spokesman Aníbal Fernández said. The Buenos Aires Herald noted that Fernández dismissed Pollicita’s 60-page report as 50 pages of “copy and paste” material collected by Nisman, and none of it reveals any crime. Also in the BAH Economy Minister Kicillof said Nisman's argument about a deal for oil with the Iranians is “economic nonsense.” “It is absolutely inexplicable, indefensible, unfounded,” he added. Kicillof rejected Nisman’s claim that Argentina was in urgent need of Iran’s oil as a “lie.” He pointed out that “there is no energy crisis in Argentina. Energy supply has increased in the past decade more than in the 20 previous years due to economic growth.” In La Jornada of Mexico City Stella Calloni wrote that CFK had turned to social media and generated a wave of support.

Horacio Verbitsky noted in Página/12 of Buenos Aires that “control of the street has been the key” to whether or not Argentine presidents have finished their terms in the years since 1983. Therefore “all attempts to push Cristina toward the door have failed because, unlike Alfonsín, De la Rua, and former Senator Duhalde, the president retains high levels of popular support” that stabilize her government against such attacks. Verbitsky says that the continuation of Nisman’s weak case is just evidence of how frustrated her political opponents have become.

Mempo Giardinelli argued in the Buenos Aires Herald that “to overthrow this government they have tried everything and continue trying everything, now based on the ‘Nisman case’ and the parody of judges and prosecutors urging a march on Congress.” These “anti-democratic” “authoritarians” are “nostalgic for the dictatorship” and dream of coups. “They jabber away about freedom and independence — two sacred words which they offend with the backing of a chorus of miserable journalists — but they are coupmongers.”

Finally, the Buenos Aires Herald noted that “the death of AMIA special prosecutor Alberto Nisman remains an unsolved mystery with all available information still pointing to a suicide.”

ENDS

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