Four days ahead of the third pot-banging protest defying the administration of President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in almost a year, Argentina’s most powerful media corporation and the government’s leading media critic launched an investigation report alluding to the involvement of Fernandez de Kirchner in a money laundering scandal.
Since then, social unrest among anti-government Argentineans has increased leading people here to protest a corruption network allegedly led by powerful businessman Lazaro Baez and Nestor Kirchner, Cristina Fernandez’s late husband and former President of Argentina.
Following the investigation, public works’ funds reaching more than 70 million dollars were laundered through a Panama connection. One of the witnesses, recorded with a hidden camera, affirmed that the illegal maneuver would have actually involved the “5 billion dollars fortune” of Lazaro Baez, Kirchner's alleged front man.
Head of state Fernandez de Kirchner has made no official statements about the escalating controversy that sights the personal wealth of the Kirchner matrimony and that private-sector analysts say it has already started to affect the President’s approval ratings.
According ruling party MPs, the investigation responds to the government’s dispute with Argentina’s media corporations in a key electoral year where official control of both houses of Congress is at stake.
Kirchner’s administration is facing another major challenge these days that has also fueled anti-government unrest. Ruling Victory Front lawmakers are racing against the clock to pass a justice reform bill that the government affirms aims to democratize Argentina’s judiciary system. However the opposition says it only seeks to control the judges.