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ARGENTINA | 22-08-2024 20:44

Alberto Fernández’s ex-private secretary says Yáñez is ‘a victim’

Testimony from María Cantero, Alberto Fernández’s private secretary of 35 years, complicates ex-president’s defence against gender violence allegations; Witness confirms that leaked WhatsApp chat messages with former first lady Fabiola Yáñez are real but says she never witnessed any acts of violence by veteran Peronist leader.

Former president Alberto Fernández's attempts to refute allegations he beat his former partner, Fabiola Yáñez, were complicated on Thursday by key witness testimony.

María Cantero, who served as private secretary to the veteran Peronist leader and worked alongside him for more than three decades, declared before the prosecutor investigating the case on Thursday that Yáñez is a “victim.”

In eagerly anticipated testimony, she also confirmed that leaked screenshots of chat messages between herself and the former first lady are “real.”

Cantero stressed, however, that she had never been a witness to any acts of violence or abuse between the former presidential pair. 

According to several local outlets on Thursday night, Cantero said she maintained a relationship of trust and friendship with Fernández, though she said that he did not talk about his private life.

Judicial sources told Infobae that Cantero said it “wasn’t my place” to intervene in private disputes.

Cantero had been summoned by the prosecutor for midday and her testimony lasted more than two hours. Fernández's former secretary left the Comodoro Py federal courthouse by the back door to avoid the cameras and avoid making statements to the press.

Yáñez, 43, filed a complaint on August 6 accusing Fernández, 65, of having beaten her during their relationship, which ended after he left office in 2023, and of "psychological terrorism."

González is investigating nine alleged episodes of violence including emotional abuse, physical aggression and harassment, which allegedly took place from 2016 to early 2024.

In a letter submitted to Federal Judge Julián Ercolini, he recently asked for charges to be brought against the ex-president for "minor and serious injuries, doubly aggravated," as well as "coercive threats."

The prosecutor said there was evidence Yáñez had "suffered a relationship marked by harassment, psychological harassment and physical aggression in a context of gender and domestic violence."

The scandal first erupted when text messages from Cantero’s phone detailing the alleged violence cropped up in a separate fraud investigation. The phone was being analysed as part of a probe into influence-peddling during Fernandez's administration.

Soon after, details and photos of the alleged abuse were published in local media outlets, with images of Yáñez with bruises on her face and arm. 

The images generated uproar, with Fernández's political allies and enemies offering near unanimous condemnation.

Yáñez says her former partner is guilty of "abuse, denial of speech and harassment," among other offences.

She has also accused the former president of smoking marijuana while serving as head of state.

In two interviews with two media outlets, Argentina's El Cohete a la Luna and Spain's El País, Fernández has denied physically assaulting Yáñez, though he has admitted the couple often argued during their relationship.

Journalist Alicia Barrios, who also testified in the case on Thursday, said the former president had “exercised psychological abuse” against his ex-partner.

Barrios, a friend of Yáñez, told González in an hour-long session at the prosecutor’s office that she had been aware of “episodes of emotional abuse” but did not witness any type of physical violence.

In previous statements to the court, Yáñez described Barrios as an “excellent woman” and claimed the journalist was aware of the abuse she had suffered and knew that women visited Fernández at the Olivos presidential residence during his Presidency.

 

– TIMES/NA/PERFIL
 

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