Cristina Fernández de Kirchner Engages with Mexican Politicians and Intellectuals During Active Visit

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner visited the bookstore of the Fondo de Cultura Económica in Mexico and had a conversation with the director of the institution, writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II

After her presentation at the closing of the international course on “Political and Electoral Reality in Latin America”, from where she requested that the Venezuelan government publish the electoral records to demonstrate its supposed victory in the presidential elections, former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner held a meeting with Mexican politicians and intellectuals in the capital of that country, where she will remain with an active agenda until the middle of the week.

Cristina Kirchner stated yesterday in her speech her adherence to the statement signed by Presidents Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Lula Da Silva, and Gustavo Petro regarding the irregular situation under Nicolás Maduro’s regime, and demanded transparency in the results. “I ask, not only for the Venezuelan people, for the opposition, for democracy, for the very legacy of Hugo Chávez, that they publish the records.”

After that event, according to people close to the former president, Cristina lunched with the members of the Executive Committee of the MORENA party (also known as the National Regeneration Movement). Participants included the president of the group governing the country, Mario Delgado, who will be the next Secretary of Public Education, appointed by the elected president Claudia Scheinbaum; the Secretary General, Citlalli Hernández; and the president of the Institute of Political Training, Rafael Barajas.

On Saturday afternoon, Cristina Kirchner visited the “Rosario Castellanos” bookstore of the Fondo de Cultura Económica and held a meeting with the president of that institution, writer Paco Ignacio Taibo II, biographer of Pancho Villa and Ernesto “Che” Guevara.

CFK will stay in Mexico until Wednesday, with a full agenda (REUTERS/Luis Cortes)

“Yesterday was a very positive day and Cristina was very happy with the agenda. First with the presentation, which was very important and everything went very well. The meeting with MORENA was with the Argentine delegation and allowed them to exchange aspects of our continent’s reality. This type of meeting with leaders who are also very welcoming is always very good,” commented a source close to the Peronist leader to Infobae. Cristina traveled to Mexico accompanied by senators Oscar Parrilli and Anabel Fernández Sagasti and mayors Mayra Mendoza (Quilmes) and Mariel Fernández (Moreno).

During the evening, she attended a dinner with women leaders of MORENA, including senators, deputies, mayors, and activists. “The meal was relaxed, and Cristina received questions from them about her role in politics and even offered advice because many are elected and will begin their management soon,” the source detailed to this medium.

Regarding her six-day silence on the situation in Venezuela, which was broken exactly in yesterday’s speech in Mexico, her inner circle explained: “Cristina is a person who is very clear when she speaks. The timing is part of political speculation by some but it is not a central issue.”

On Saturday night, Cristina Kirchner dined with female deputies, senators, and elected mayors

Cristina Kirchner’s agenda will continue with meetings with different actors from Mexican politics and culture over the next few days. She will return to the country on Wednesday. On Monday, August 5, she will be received by the Head of Government of Mexico City, Marti Batres. The former senator and substitute in the DF for Scheinbaum will welcome her along with his cabinet for a bilateral meeting between both delegations at the City Hall. Later, the two-time president of Argentina will receive recognition as Distinguished Guest of Mexico City. Later, CFK will hold a private audience with Mexico’s Secretary of Foreign Relations, Alicia Barcena, who will be the future Secretary of Environment in the elected president’s government.

“We have always respected in South America that we are not all the same and we respect cultural dignities. In that sense, I must recognize as a guiding principle that informed the region, and that must continue to inform the region, what Mexico has historically upheld: the non-interference in the affairs of other countries, which is to recognize political and cultural sovereignty,” the Peronist leader noted in her speech yesterday before a full audience in Mexico City.

“Yesterday I heard the head of the National Electoral Council of Venezuela read the result of the scrutiny of a total of 96.87 of the votes, where he speaks of the number of voters scrutinized and what each candidate obtained. Now, we all know, because the National Electoral Council itself reported, that it is a constitutional power that had been hacked, and therefore, did not have the records to publish. But it is also evident that if that scrutiny could be addressed, which was meticulously read yesterday, with decimal precision, in each of the candidates presented, it is because there is a dual system of IT support, which was hacked, but support of records that were signed and sent to the National Electoral Council,” analyzed CFK regarding Maduro’s position and the Venezuelan CNE.

“Publish the records”, CKF asked the Venezuelan government

That is why she emphasized that the publication of the results is necessary for national politics, the opposition, and the people of Venezuela to continue their discussion. “In any case, I am happy because yesterday I was very concerned, because the main idea of the opposition was in hiding. But today I saw that they are advancing a march in Caracas, so fortunately, it has had little time of secrecy, which is very good because secrecy, believe me, is something very ugly, very bad. So we are happy that it has been able to end its period of secrecy,” said CFK, with a hint of irony.

Regarding the Mexican political issue, Cristina congratulated Sheinbaum on her victory in the Mexican elections and celebrated the continuity of López Obrador’s legacy. Regarding the elected president, she highlighted that she identifies “fully with that model, resisting the temptation to believe herself different or better, and understanding herself as part of a collective, which is the lesson we all must understand from politics and history.” Some interpreted this as a jab at Alberto Fernández.

In addition, she elaborated a lengthy analysis on the “utopias” that have traversed the Latin American region throughout its history. “We were more successful in the struggle for freedom than in the struggles for equality”, she remarked, listing the dictatorships that suppressed the region during the 70s and part of the 80s. In this regard, CFK thanked Mexico for always having welcomed Argentine exiles, and then analyzed the effects of neoliberalism in the 90s. Finally, she referred to the arrival of what became known as the “progressive wave” in Latin America, led by Lula Da Silva, Néstor Kirchner, Hugo Chávez, Evo Morales, and Rafael Correa, which served to theorize about the interventions of the Judiciary over the Executive.

“Against those popular leaders, at that moment in the world, coups d’état were no longer possible, so another actor came into play that served as a tool to blackmail national and popular governments: the judicial powers,” she concluded, stating: “Justice in Latin America is occupied by economic powers and pressured by the media.”