Former Argentine President Alberto Fernandez was charged this Wednesday with the crimes of serious injuries doubly aggravated by the relationship and for having taken place in a gender context and coercive threats to the detriment of his ex-partner and former first ladyFabiola Yañez, who was the one who reported the attacks.
The measure was taken by federal prosecutor Ramiro González in a ruling in which he ordered the first evidentiary measures of the case.
The prosecutor indicated that Yañez “suffered a relationship characterized by harassment, psychological harassment and physical aggression in a context of gender and domestic violence” based on an “asymmetrical and unequal power relationship that developed over time, which “increased exponentially” by the election of Fernández as President of the Nation and the exercise of this office.
González ordered several evidentiary measures such as the summoning of witnesses such as María Cantero, former private secretary of Alberto Fernández; Federico Saavedra, former head of the presidential medical unit; Miriam Yañez Verdugo, Fabiola's mother; Sofía Pacchi, Fabiola's friend and one of the people present at Olivos' party; and journalist Alicia Barrios.
Daniel Rodriguez, mayor of Quinta de Olivos during Fernández's presidency, was also cited.
The prosecutor requested Olivos' security camera footage from 2021 to 2023 of the residential chalet and the guest house, where Yañez reported he was going to live with his son.
He also asked about the former first lady's background regarding the psychiatric treatment she received at the INECO clinic and the fertility treatment to get pregnant, in addition to her complete medical history.
The beginning of the investigation
Fabiola Yañez's complaint came after conversations between her and Alberto Fernández's former secretary, María Cantero, were detected in the “Nación Seguros” case, which revealed the existence of situations of gender violence. In this context, Justice granted the intervention of the Domestic Violence Office, but indicated that it does not carry out a risk assessment solely on the basis of written documents or images that cannot be investigated, so that to verify the fact, an appearance of the former first lady was necessary.
According to the actions of the Public Ministry, in this context, on June 28, a virtual hearing took place between Yañez and the justice in which she expressed that “she did not want to give impetus to a criminal action”, but on January 6 she changed her mind. mind and declared. He stated that the previous time he had decided not to go ahead “because he was not in a position to make a decision on the matter since he had been asked not to do so.” He explained that he had changed his decision due to “the current circumstances and the public dissemination of these events” and added that he was suffering from “psychological terrorism.”
According to the prosecutor's office, Yañez said: “I always have to end up doing what I'm told to do” and stressed the need to protect her physical and mental integrity. She said she suffered daily telephone harassment from Alberto Fernández and that she had been a victim of gender-based violence for five years.