Yáñez details Fernández gender violence claims in four-hour testimony

Argentina’s former first lady Fabiola Yáñez testified on Tuesday for four hours before prosecutor Ramiro González in the gender violence case she has brought against her former partner, ex-president Alberto Fernández.

Yáñez, 43, gave testimony from Argentina’s consulate Madrid via the Zoom platform. She currently resides in the Spanish capital with Francisco, the son she had with Fernández in April 2022.

The former first lady’s dialogue with the prosecutor leading the case, Ramiro González, began just after 10am and ended around 3pm, said judicial sources.

"She was able to testify and felt very comfortable," Yáñez’s lawyer, Mariana Gallego, told the press, adding that "it only remains to trust in [the] justice [system] and in the procedural steps."

Yáñez felt “very well supported, very well accompanied by the press, by the people and above all by the UFEM, the Prosecutor's Office and the court that is intervening," she added.

A day earlier, Yáñez had presented a written statement of around 20 pages in which she said she had suffered "mistreatment, harassment, contempt, aggressions and blows” from the former Fernández, while being slapped on an almost daily basis.

Yáñez, a former journalist and actress, stated in the writ that she began living together with Fernández in 2016. She accused the former president of enacting “reproductive violence" on her by pressuring her to have an abortion that same year.

The 43-year-old denounced Fernández for “physical violence” and “psychological terrorism” before the courts a week ago and two days later, alleged chat messages and photos apparently showing evidence of the abuse were published in the local press. In the images, she is seen bruised on the face and arm.

In her written statement, she gave details of the circumstances of one of those blows: "We had argued before, a lot, as was usual, and as a closing of the argument, he hit me from his side of the bed with a terrible blow from the fist," she writes, before going on to accuse a doctor from the then-president’s medical team of attempting to cover it up.

On a less serious note, Yáñez also said that the former president made her give up her pet, a pomeranian dog.

The former first lady said the pup did not get on well with Fernández’s own dog, Dylan, and that he ordered her to pass on the pet to another family member because he believed it was “a whore’s dog.”

The testimony took place the day after ex-president Fernández denied once again the allegations against him.

‘Not valid’

Neither the former president nor his lawyer were able to witness Yáñez's statements on Tuesday, by decision of the judge overseeing the case.

Lawyer Silvina Carreira, who is representing Fernández, argued to local media that the hearing was "not "valid."

She questioned why the accuser did not allow “questions from the defence” and accused Yáñez of denying Fernández “his constitutional right that corresponds to him.”

If the former first lady "give a televised statement lasting many hours, exposing it publicly and before the whole of society, she is not being re-victimised by the situation,” she added, referring to an interview Yáñez granted to the Infobae website last week.

In an interview with Spanish newspaper El País published on Tuesday, Fernández denied the allegations against him.

I was not “the author of any of these events,” he told the daily.

“I am being accused of something I have not done. I have not hit Fabiola. I have never hit a woman," the veteran Peronist leader declared.

“For four years I was president of this country and I promoted gender policies and I know that in cases like this the burden of proof is reversed and the man is presumed guilty and has to prove his innocence. I am going to prove it," Fernández remarked.

"What I'm going to do is wait, go to the justice system and let the justice system resolve it," added the 65-year-old.

The former president added that his ex-partner does not "have to tell the newspapers," but to "prove" her accusations "in court."

Minister denies knowledge of alleged incidents

Ayelén Mazzina, the last head of the former Women, Diversity & Gender Ministry, came out on Tuesday to deny claims from Fabiola Yáñez that the former first lady had informed the ex-government official about alleged episodes of gender violence perpetrated by Fernández.

Yáñez stated in court testimony that she had asked Mazzina for help and even showed him images of the violence she had suffered, but said "she did nothing" about it.

"I said it and I stand by it: I was never aware of the situation of violence denounced by the former first lady," said Mazzina, who led the portfolio created by Fernandez from October 2022 to December 2023.

"I will place myself at the disposal of Justice, which is the one who must investigate, because I cannot allow a falsehood about what happened or that gender violence is trivialised," she continued.

Mazzina also made reference to the importance of maintaining public policies that prevent gender violence and assist victims – an implicit criticism of the drastic budget and personnel cuts in the area implemented by President Javier Milei’s government.

Condemning his predecessor in office on Tuesday, President Milei again commented on the developing scandal, accusing Fernández of being involved in episodes of "insurance corruption," "gender violence," of leading an "illicit association” and of “influence-peddling using the state to finance” his “extra-functional pleasures.”

Last week, he slammed “progressive hypocrisy" and described his predecessor as the “champion of feminism” who “beat his wife.”

Pettinato denies benefitting from relationship

Media personality Tamara Pettinato, who was seen drinking inside the president’s office and flirting with Fernández in a video leaked online last week, also came out Tuesday to deny reports that she had financially benefited from her relationship with the former head of state.

"In the last few days, I have been the victim of a campaign of harassment as a result of the publication of a private video in which I appear filmed by former president Alberto Fernandez. The intentions for which this material is made public and disseminated may be many. I will not dwell on that now,” she wrote on social media.

“I want to clarify that the images correspond to a lunch I had with the former president after conducting an interview in Casa Rosada as part of a documentary work for Chinese television on the relations of that country with Argentina in January 2022,” continued Pettinato.

Admitting that she had done some work for the National Commerce Secretariat, Pettinato claimed she had been hired by a “private production company” and not received US$4,500 for the job, unlike had been widely reported.

“I was not accommodated or recommended by anyone. It is the only state-related job I ever had. It lasted ONE day in November 2022. I never benefited from my relationship with the former president,” stated Pettinato.

– TIMES/AFP/PERFIL/NA