South America’s leftwing leaders support CFK after court ruling

Lula and Petro called CFK to express their solidarity

Most of South America’s leftwing leaders expressed their solidarity with former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK), whose 6-year prison sentence was upheld by the Supreme Court (CSJN) earlier this week.

Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva telephoned CFK to highlight her serenity while urging her to remain strong, drawing from his own experience of imprisonment on corruption charges later overturned. “I called comrade Cristina Kirchner this afternoon and expressed my solidarity,” said the Brazilian president on X.. “I spoke to her about the importance of staying strong in these difficult times”, he added. “I observed with satisfaction the serenity and determination with which Cristina faces this adverse situation and her determination to continue fighting,” Lula further noted.

Other leaders, including Colombia’s Gustavo Petro, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, Cuba’s Miguel Díaz-Canel, Bolivia’s Luis Arce, Mexico’s Claudia Sheinbaum, and Chile’s Gabriel Boric, also voiced support, denouncing the sentence as political persecution and “lawfare” aimed at undermining leftist leaders.

Petro linked the ruling to a broader threat to Latin American democracy, while Maduro called it a “judicial terrorist coup.”

“I just spoke with Cristina Kirchner in Argentina. My solidarity with her who is on her way to prison,” said Petro. “We are facing difficult times,” with “the democratic spring of Latin America in danger.”

The Colombian leader also accused the governments where today “the extreme right and right wing are ascending” of “encouraging democratic ruptures” and has taken the opportunity to link what happened in Argentina with the situation in his country, where “they are already touting a coup d’état and it is not a speech.”

“People of the extreme right wing in Colombia and the United States are holding fluid conversations to achieve it,” he assured.

Former leaders like Evo Morales and Rafael Correa, along with Spain’s Podemos, echoed similar sentiments.

Sheinbaum, Boric, Lula, and Petro are reportedly preparing a joint statement to repudiate the ruling, following a precedent set by a 2022 statement against Kirchner’s judicial persecution.

The Puebla Group and Brazil’s PT also backed Kirchner, framing the sentence as an attack on left-wing forces and regional sovereignty.