From prison, jailed Kirchnerite figures call for ‘Christmas without political prisoners’

A group of jailed Kirchnerite figures have called on their followers to march on the centre of Argentina's judicial system to call for their release and "a Christmas without political prisoners."

The group – a collection of politicians, officials, social leaders and picket-leaders who have either been convicted of corruption charges or are under investigation in the courts – issued their call in a series of voicemail recordings shared with journalists and on social networks.

The march, in demand of their freedom, will take place on Thursday, November 28, and end at the Comodoro Py federal courthouse in Retiro, the heart of Argentina's judicial system.

Some of the key figures involved include former vice-president Amado Boudou; leader of the Túpac Amaru social organisation Milagro Sala; former federal planning minister Julio De Vido; piquetero movement leader Luis D’Elia; and De Vido's undersecretary at the Planning Ministry, Roberto Barratta. 

All released different audio or video messages calling for demonstrators to take to the streets. They used the banner headline: “Christmas without political prisoners.”

It's not the first time such a call has gone out. In 2017, a group of Kirchnerite militant demonstrators mobilised close to the Ezeiza prison – where many of the former officials are jailed – to make the same demand. In 2019, they will repeat the refrain, but this time meeting at the federal courts. 

In one audio message, identified as Amado Boudou, he thanked some human rights groups for the “commitment and solidarity they have had with all the political prisoners that exist in Argentina.” 

The term "political prisoners" is often used by Kirchnerite figures to allege President Mauricio Macri is behind their legal woes.

“We have to end the arbitrary and illegal detentions and the condemnation that we have suffered during this time. It’s not a problem for each one of us, it’s a collective problem,” Boudou said. 

Sala, who has been detained either in prison or held under home arrest for three years and eight months, recorded a video in which she reminded people of the 2017 march.

“November 28, everyone will return to reclaim democracy and to demand that political prisoners stop being persecuted just because they don’t think the same as this government,” she said. 

From his cell in the prison in Ezeiza, De Vido called on supports to gather and fight for “our freedom and against the shameful failures scripted by the Clarín Group that led our methodical and judicial persecution.” 

– TIMES/PERFIL