A newspaper in Argentina has accused former president Alberto Fernández of gender violence against his partner, former first lady Fabiola Yáñez.
The allegation, made by the Clarín newspaper this week, dominated headlines in the daily, which said the revelation had been uncovered during the probe of a mobile phone seized as part of an investigation into alleged corruption.
The so-called “Seguros” case, investigating the handling of public agencies’ insurance coverage during Fernández’s 2019-2023 government, has created bad headlines for the former president.
According to a report in Clarín, investigators found messages detailing the alleged abuse from the phone of Fernández's private secretary.
The media outlet said that the probe of María Cantero’s mobile phone revealed messages from Yáñez that showed evidence alleged abuse and gender violence by the former head of state.
According to the newspaper, “the phone allegedly contained four photos of the former first lady, one with an eye and part of her upper maxillary very swollen due to alleged blows and another one with visible bruising all along the right side of her thorax, with purplish ribs and pit on that side.”
The “courts may also be in possession of footage which may show a person identifiable as Fernández in an alleged violent attitude toward her partner," the newspaper added, while stating it would not publish them in order to avoid "revictimising" Yáñez.
It did not reveal how it accessed the information, which is under judicial secrecy.
The Times has been unable to confirm the claims.
According to the investigation revealed by the newspaper, federal judge Julián Ercolini – who has been nominated for a Supreme Court bench by President Javier Milei – communicated with Yáñez via Zoom,
Asked if she wanted to report anything or denounce her partner, the former president’s former partner answered that she “had no intention of travelling to this country to report it," claimed Clarín.
Yáñez’s lawyer, Juan Pablo Floribello, said meanwhile that the two people involved deny the allegations, though they do admit to a "heated argument.”
Speaking in a radio interview, the former first lady’s lawyer revealed that Yáñez had shared a message that said: “I don’t want to keep doing this, it’s hurting me, I have a problem with depression right now.”
Floribello also claimed that the ex-first lady had declared “there was no violence" and that she "did not want to report anything."
In the meantime, Alberto Fernández had kept quiet about the issue, as did most of Peronism, at least until this article was published.
One person who did speak was Quilmes Mayor Mayra Mendoza, a fierce Kirchnerite who was previously critical of the former president.
In conversation with Página/12, the Buenos Aires Province leader pointed out that “gender-based violence unfortunately transcends all sectors, groups and political parties."
“The same way he irresponsibly celebrated her wife’s birthday and then blamed it on her, I believe it possible,” said the Quilmes mayor.
She also insisted that Fernández fits the “typical violence circle profile.”
"This has been studied and those of us who work on gender-based violence care networks know it is so," she said, without expanding further.
Justice minister Mariano Cúneo Libarona, in turn, also expressed an opinion.
“This is another proof of gender hypocrisy," he said in a radio interview on Sunday. "That is, they created the Women’s Ministry [sic, Women, Gender & Diversity Ministry] with 1,000 employees while only 70 actually work there; femicides increased, they made a fortune and nobody worked and absolutely nothing was solved.”
– TIMES/PERFIL
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