Argentine prosecutor accuses Fernandez of serious injuries

BUENOS AIRES (EFE).— An Argentine prosecutor yesterday charged former President Alberto Fernández with the alleged crime of serious injuries and threats against former first lady Fabiola Yáñez.

The charge was made by federal prosecutor Ramiro González, in charge of the investigation opened following the complaint against Fernández filed by Fabiola for gender-based violence.

With this accusation, the prosecutor is requesting that the first evidence be collected in the context of the complaint filed based on photographs and conversations found by the courts on the phone of Fernández’s secretary, as part of an investigation into alleged corruption in public contracts.

The former president is charged with serious injuries doubly aggravated by the relationship and by the fact that it occurred in a context of gender violence and coercive threats against his ex-partner, who testified before González the day before yesterday from Madrid, where he resides.

In his opinion, the prosecutor states that Fabiola “suffered a relationship marked by harassment, psychological stalking and physical aggression in a context of gender and domestic violence” based “on an asymmetric and unequal power relationship that has developed over time, which was exponentially increased by the election of Fernández as president” in 2019, and “the exercise of office” until last December.

According to the prosecutor, under “this structure of asymmetry,” Fernández would have carried out various criminally relevant behaviors, including forcing Fabiola to have an abortion in 2016, “through a plan that constituted mistreatment, denial of speech, harassment,” by which the woman was coerced into making that decision, “causing her irreparable psychological damage.”

It also states that on August 12, 2021, Fernández grabbed Fabiola by the arm “causing the injuries whose image can be seen” in a photo sent by the former first lady to María Cantero, the Peronist politician’s secretary.

Likewise, it indicates that in July 2021, Fernández, while he was with Fabiola in bed in the “presidential suite” of the official residence of Olivos, after an argument “he punched her in the eye”, and that on August 11, 2021, after another argument, the then president “shook (Fabiola) Yáñez by his arms, causing an injury to a limb and held her by the neck with his hands.”

Kick in the belly

The document also states that on August 12, 2021, Fernández kicked Fabiola in the stomach, “knowing that the aforementioned could be pregnant at that time.”

The prosecutor said that during the first half of 2023, “Alberto Fernández habitually hit Fabiola with his open hand,” and she decided to move with her son, Francisco, born in April 2022, to the guest house in Olivos, where the former president “entered violently.”

The prosecutor also points out that Fabiola Yáñez recounted that, while she was on a trip to Foz de Iguazú, Brazil, she showed Ayelén Mazzina, then head of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, photos of the beatings she suffered and told her that she wanted to leave the Olivos residence, to which the then minister limited herself to asking her to visit her at the Ministry “without taking any type of measure in accordance with the role she played at that time.”

The prosecutor ordered a separate investigation into this matter.

The prosecutor also said that on June 28, Fabiola Yáñez received a call from her then lawyer, Juan Pablo Fioribello, who suggested she not report Fernández.

Fabiola also “reported having received various types of threats in recent weeks, both from Alberto Fernández and from third parties, via calls and text messages.”

At a glance

Ministry of Women

The prosecutor points out that Fabiola Yáñez recounted that, while she was on a trip to Foz de Iguazú, Brazil, she showed Ayelén Mazzina, then head of the Ministry of Women, Gender and Diversity, photos of the beatings she suffered and told her that she wanted to leave the Olivos residence, to which the then minister limited herself to asking her to visit the ministry “without taking any type of measure in accordance with the role she played at that time.”

Called

She also said that on June 28, Fabiola received a call from her then lawyer, Juan Pablo Fioribello, who suggested she not report Fernández.