The reputation of Argentina’s former president Alberto Fernández was engulfed in scandal again on Friday morning as images showing the violence he allegedly perpetrated against his former partner emerged online.
Two photographs of former first lady Fabiola Yáñez, who ended a nine-year relationship with Fernández last year and this week formally denounced him for gender violence, were published by local media outlets and across social media platforms on Thursday evening.
The images, leaked from the investigation into the alleged beatings suffered by Yáñez and first published by the Infobae website, seem to show shocking injuries suffered by the 43-year-old at the hands of the former president.
In one, Yáñez is pictured with heavy bruising around her eye (a ‘black eye,’ or ‘shiner’), seemingly the result of a blow to the eye socket.
In the second, taken with the use of a mirror, Argentina’s former first lady lifts up her arm to show bruising in and around her armpit – most likely the result of being grabbed fiercely.
The images date back to August 2021, Infobae reported.
The online outlet had more damning material. One screenshot, presumably taken from a WhatsApp chat between Fernández and his former partner, shows Yáñez challenging her former partner about physical violence and abuse.
"This does not work like this, all the time you hit me,” she writes in one message. “I can't let you do this to me when I didn't do anything to you,” reads the text. “There is no explanation.”
Other messages refer to physical abuse: “You hit me again”; “You've been hitting me for three days in a row"; "When you grabbed my arms you left bruises.”
Alongside the most shocking image, the close-up of the former first lady with a dark bruise around her eye, Yañez writes ironically to Fernández: "This is when you hit me without meaning to.”
Shortly afterwards, the LN+ news channel began broadcasting a video clip filmed on a phone by Fernández from the President’s Office at the Casa Rosada, Argentina’s presidential palace.
The veteran Peronist, who is filming the video on what is presumably his mobile phone, is sharing an intimate conversation with Tamara Pettinato, a television and streaming star.
In the recording, Pettinato holds a glass of beer and exchanges jokes with Fernández. At the beginning of the video, the woman states that "today, we are breaking off our relationship" and Alberto Fernández's suggestive answer is: "So you had a relationship with me?”
At the end of the flirty exchange, both express words of reciprocal love and the recording ends.
Pettinato was one of a number of attractive young females who visited the Olivos presidential residence during the Covid-19 pandemic in August 2021, when Argentina was placed under a strict national lockdown to stop the spread of the virus.
Several other high-profile celebrities, such as Florencia Peña and Sofía Pacchi, were also on the list, which eventually led to a criminal complaint against Fernández and several others for having disobeyed the emergency regulations the president himself introduced.
Pettinato, the daughter of rockstar and TV host Roberto Pettinato, has previously said that she did not “feel the need” to explain why she visited the ex-president during the Covid lockdown.
“I don't have to say why I went and what we talked about, because it's something private and I don't feel I need to explain it," she said during an interview last year.
In 2021, she said in another interview that her visit was “for something personal.”
Condemnation
The former president’s allies and enemies were quick to condemn Fernández and his actions on social media.
Presidential Spokesperson Maneul Adorni posted on the X social network: “Kirchnerism has been an infinite disgrace," and "Gentlemen: Never again."
Adorni said in his morning press conference on Friday that the images were "detestable" and criticised Fernández for hosting Pettinato at the Casa Rosada for a romantic occasion.
If "he is guilty, he must pay for what he did," he said in response to a question about the images of Yáñez.
Fernando Soto, national director of regulation and judicial liaison at the Security Ministry, called for Fernández to be placed under pre-trial detention.
"He can go to jail. There are similar cases with detainees. He is harassing witnesses," wrote soto.
"What is the Justice System waiting for to put Alberto Fernández in jail?” he added.
Buenos Aires Province Governor Axel Kicillof, a top Peronist and Kirchnerite leader, said that he and his allies were "shocked" by the revelations.
"We are all very shocked by this situation. We hope that it will be resolved quickly, that the justice system will act quickly and resolve it. The complaint is extremely serious," said Kicillof in a radio interview.
Kicillof was one of the first high-profile Peronist leaders to comment on the situation publicly.
His remarks were quickly followed by reaction from Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, the former two-term president who served as vice-president in Alberto Fernández's 2019-2023 government.
Describing her former boss as "not a good president," she said that the "re-victimisation of the plaintiff," which she said occurred by the mass publication of the images" were "ANOTHER THING."
"The photos of Ms. Fabiola Yáñez with bruises on her body and face, together with the published chats that reveal the dialogue between her and the former president, not only show the beating she received, but also reveal the most sordid and darkest aspects of the human condition," she wrote on social media. "Once again, they provide dramatic evidence of the situation of women in any relationship, whether it takes place in a palace or a hut."
"Misogyny, machismo and hypocrisy, the pillars on which verbal or physical violence against women is based, have no partisan flag and permeate society at all levels," she warned.
Veteran Peronist union and picket leader Luis D'Elía published a harsh post on social media in which he suggested Fernández should take his own life.
"If he has a little dignity, he should lock himself in his bedroom, write a letter asking forgiveness to Fabiola, to his children, to his colleagues and to the Argentine People and shoot himself in the head,” said D'Elía.
That post generated thousands of reactions, among them plenty of people who reminded the controversial picket-leader that incitement to suicide is a crime.
On Friday morning, D'Elìa posted again on social networks: "Last night @alferdez sent me these messages, obviously I did not answer him, I was wound up."
He then posted a screenshot of a message sent by the Peronist leader.
"I'm sorry you think I am capable of something like that. At least listen to me before you shoot me,” Fernández wrote to D'Elía.
Yáñez, 43, filed a criminal complaint on Tuesday accusing the former head of state of having beaten her during their relationship, which ended after he left office in 2023.
She also accused her partner and father of her son of launching a campaign of “psychological terrorism” and harassment that has seen him attempt to contact her on a daily basis.
Allegations
The scandal surrounding Fernández, 65, erupted when text messages detailing the alleged violence cropped up in a separate fraud investigation.
It emerged Tuesday that messages detailing the alleged attacks, with photographic evidence, had been found on the phone of Fernández's private secretary, María Cantero.
The phone was being analysed as part of a probe into alleged influence-peddling during Fernández's administration.
The investigation’s case file indicates that Yáñez wrote to Cantero about the alleged attacks, which are said to have taken place at the Olivos presidential residence.
After initially deciding not to press charges during talks with the investigating court, Yáñez later contacted federal judge Julián Ercolini to reverse her decision.
She reportedly alleged that she was “hit” and “kicked” several times and, among others, sustained injuries to her face.
Local media reported that Ercolini had imposed "restriction and protection measures,” with Fernández forbidden from leaving the country amid the probe.
Yáñez lives in Madrid with their son Francisco and her mother and grandmother, while Fernández lives in Buenos Aires.
The former president denies the allegations.
On Friday, it emerged that Judge Ercolini had ordered the national government to send two federal police officers to Madrid, Spain, to join Yáñez’s security detail. The former first lady had requested a change in its makeup to remove a man seen as close to Fernández.
In news related to the criminal case against Fernández, lawyer Mariana Gallego announced Thursday that she would now be representing the former first lady.
She will replace fellow lawyer Juan Pablo Fioribello, who has been removed from Yáñez’s team given that he has previously represented both Yáñez and Fernández in legal proceedings.
– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
* This article was updated to include reaction from Axel Kicillof and Cristina Fernández de Kirchner
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