When historians study this period of history they will come across different chapters throughout the years in which Cristina Kirchner crosses paths with a character power of attorney. One of them is Juan Bautista Mahiques, the prosecutor who was mentioned by the vice president whom she accused in 2020 of pressuring, during the period of Mauricio Macrito a federal judge. “I just listened on AM750 to Judge Ana María Figueroa of the Federal Chamber of Criminal Cassation, recounting how she was pressured by Juan Bautista Mahíques, former adviser to the Magistracy for the Executive in the government of Mauricio Macri, in the framework of the memorandum case of Iran”, CFK wrote then on the networks.
The situation was confused because the judge said that the person who had visited him was below the minister German Garavanoimmediately the journalist Mariano Martín asked him if he was Santiago Otamendithen Secretary of Justice. She said no. Then she was asked about Esteban Conte Grand, Garavano’s chief of staff. She also said no. When she asked about Mahiques, stumbled and preferred to avoid give a more forceful answer like the previous ones. That made all Cristina Kirchner’s darts point at the current head of the city’s prosecutors. The controversy was such that Judge Figueroa had to come out to give certainty about her insinuations. In the end, she said in an interview with Infobae: “I did not say that it was Juan Bautista Mahiques”, transferring the responsibility to the journalist. Everything was left in an ambiguous zone.
Mahiques family
Who is Mahiques? Juan Bautista is the son of Cassation judge Carlos Alberto Mahiques and brother of the investigating prosecutor No. 35 of the City of Buenos Aires Ignacio Mahiques. The three at different times were in the crosshairs of Kirchnerism for their judicial movements. Carlos Alberto was a judge of cassation in the city of Buenos Aires, but when macrismo came to power, he accompanied María Eugenia Vidal. He was its first Minister of Justice. For that he requested a license as a judge, but this type of license is only admitted for six months. Ten days before the license expires, he resigned because he would otherwise lose that position for life. Given that the Government of Vidal lasted only four years, the vision of Mahiques father could be celebrated. But the judge decided to make one more play and began to mobilize his landing in the federal jurisdiction where it is today. For this position, Mahiques usually receives, in a low voice, criticism from his colleagues. It happens that the magistrate did not compete for the federal cassation, but arrived there by vote in the council of the magistracy. That is to say that politics put it there. These types of movements, in the academic world are usually reproached, but in Comodoro Py, cunning is celebrated.
Ignacio Mahiques, the brother of John the baptist is perhaps the most hated by Cristina Kirchner. Why? On May 12, 2016, Barely five months after Macrismo came to power, he was appointed ad hoc prosecutor to collaborate with prosecutor Gerardo Pollicita in cases against Cristina Kirchner and her family. An example: the only trial that came to have CFK in the dock was due to the work and grace of Mahiques in conjunction with judge Julián Ercolini and prosecutor Pollicita. He was in the cause of corruption in the road work of Santa Cruz. Another example, and perhaps one of the most sensitive in personal terms, is the Hotesur cause. In that file, the accusation was not reduced only to Cristina but also to Florencia and Máximo Kirchner. In one of her few references to that file, CFK’s daughter has said that her illness was caused by judicial persecution. Ignacio Mahiques was also on that team.
During the macrismo, Juan Bautista was representative of the executive power in the Council of the Magistracy and undersecretary of Penitentiary Affairs. In other words, he was involved in issues that had to do with the appointment and punishment of judges, but he was also in charge of federal prisons. Under his orbit was the director of the Penitentiary Service, Emiliano Blanco, the same one who is still in office today and who is the subject of an internship at the Ministry of Justice between Marcela Losardo, the minister, and Juan Martín Mena, the secretary. Blanco has one more point against him, the employees of the prison service no longer tolerate him. He has been in that position since 2014. That is to say, he went through Kirchnerism, Macrismo and now Albertismo without too many setbacks. We will have to see if that political belt overcomes the Coronavirus emergency.
Internal.
CFK’s allusions to Mahiques then also set off alarms within the Government itself. One of them was Eduardo “Wado” de Pedro, who has been a friend of Mahiques since they were both teenagers in the City of Mercedes. In a dialogue between the two, “Wado” tried to calm the waters.
Another who paid attention to the words of Cristina was Alberto Fernández. The vice president in her tweet alluded to the head of the City Government, with whom the President maintains a good relationship. “What thoughts will go through the head of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta learning that Juan Bautista Mahíques, whom he proposed and appointed as Attorney General of the Judiciary of the City of Buenos Aires, squeezes judges to obtain à la carte rulings?”, she asked herself in a Chicana tone.
Anything that has to do with the Justice, Cristina Kirchner he takes them personally. While Alberto Fernández governs without fulfilling the judicial reforms that he had promised, CFK fights its own battles. Is it an internal message? The latest news was that the legislators who respond to Cristina denounced Macri’s “judicial table”, which includes Mahiques. This story promises more chapters.
