'We will return,' Fernández de Kirchner tells crowd in Plaza de Mayo

Former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner told her followers on Wednesday that “we will return,” despite her six-year jail term for corruption offences.

“We will return with more wisdom,” the former president said in a recorded speech from her residence, where she is serving house arrest.

The audio message was broadcast to a huge crowd in the Plaza de Mayo that had gathered to support her.

“Dear Argentines, we will return – and we will return with more wisdom, with more unity, with more strength,” said the former president, who served two terms from 2007 to 2015.

On Tuesday, Fernández de Kirchner began serving a six-year sentence under house arrest for corruption. She has also been permanently disqualified from holding public office.

The veteran Peronist recorded the message from her home and it was played to tens of thousands of supporters who had gathered in the square in support of her political hero.

“The real economic power knows this model has no future, it knows it’s collapsing – and that is why I am imprisoned,” she claimed.

Fernández de Kirchner criticised President Javier Milei’s government, declaring: “There is something everyone must understand: they can lock me up, but they won’t be able to imprison the entire Argentine people. The ones who are scared are not us – it’s them.”

“This is the time to show that we are going to defend democracy with the same tools we used to build it – without violence, but with courage,” the former president said.

– TIMES/AFP