Argentine judge orders Kirchner's artwork be confiscated
BUENOS AIRES (AFP).- An Argentine judge has ordered the seizure of more than 30 pieces of art owned by former president Cristina Kirchner, currently awaiting trial for corruption.
Argentine media said the artworks were worth $4 million.
The seizure took place on Thursday night, judicial sources said, at Kirchner's Buenos Aires residence in the trendy Recoleta neighborhood.
It had been ordered in August when judge Claudio Bonadio gave investigators the green light to search Kirchner's three properties after parliament had partially lifted the immunity her current role as a senator affords her.
She is accused of receiving tens of millions of dollars in bribes and running a criminal network related to the infamous "corruption notebooks" scandal -- revealed through the meticulous records of millions of dollars in bribes paid by businessmen to government officials kept by a ministerial chauffeur.
Reacting to the confiscations on Twitter, Kirchner posted the front page of the Clarin daily newspaper and commented on the juxtaposition of its two main stories: a hike by the current government in tariffs on public services and her artworks being removed.
"Today, December 28, is the Day of the Innocents," said Kirchner before accusing Clarin of trying "to make you believe that there was a museum in my house so you get angry about that and not the new tariffs on light, gas and transport."
President Mauricio Macri's government announced on Thursday big increases in tariffs on public services. In Buenos Aires those will amount to around 40 percent on transport, 35 percent on gas and 55 percent on electricity for 2019, in a country that recently entered recession and with almost 50 percent inflation this year.
Kirchner is leading polls alongside Macri ahead of presidential elections next October.
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Very easy to see through these machinations by now. The right intends to overpower the will of the people in the Americas, using all the many methods of coercion and deceit and dirty, cowardly brutality always within its grasp.
