daniel santoro He is an investigative journalist and writer, with a long career in both areas. Since the legal case of the false lawyer Marcelo D’Alessio was made known, he was prosecuted for illicit association and for alleged espionage until October 2021, until the Federal Chamber confirmed his dismissal. Last July he published his book “Cristina’s Final Battle”. There he tells what for him is an “impunity plan” that the Vice President is carrying out, removing judges and prosecutors, and trying to close the proceedings that are still open. In this interview, he also talks about politics.
“I think lThe alliance of the Front of All is going to end up breaking for the elections or before next year”, confesses Santoro to NOTICIAS. In addition, he assures that all her causes will end up in court, and hence his criticism of Horacio Rosatti.
News: Would I have written “Cristina’s Final Battle” if “Operative Puff” hadn’t happened?
Daniel Santoro: No, I was not planning to write this book. I have 40 years of journalism, I have never had a criminal case for crimes such as espionage and attempted complicity in extortion. I wrote this book from inside the case, when I was indicted. Kirchnerism opened two cases for me, in the D’Alessio case, the Federal Chamber of Mar del Plata annulled the prosecutions that Judge Alejo Ramos Padilla, a member of Legitimate Justice, had ordered me. The first thing I did when I confronted Judge Ramos Padilla was show him my bank accounts, the deed to my house and my car, and I told him: “If I am an accomplice in extortion, where is the money?” He is the same judge who, in March 2019, went to the Committee on Freedom of Expression of Congress at the hands of Leopoldo Moreau and said: “I am investigating a national and international espionage organization” It was all a lie, a story invented by the Kirchnerism that Ramos Padilla criminalized. We have never seen this criminalization of the exercise of journalism in Argentine democracy.
News: Do you think that Cristina Kirchner’s criticism of the Supreme Court is due to the fear that it will determine her guilt?
Santoro: Cristina knows that the convictions that she will eventually receive will end up in court. Independent journalism, the Court, a group of judges and the Chamber of Deputies have been the retaining wall for their projects to colonize justice. This is due to these drowning slaps and this desperation. Wearing down the figure of the members of Justice, they manage to make 30%, which is the hard core of voters, believe that Justice is a disaster and that everything is manipulated. The situation is not black and white.
News: What do you think her future will be?
Santoro: I think that the alliance of the Front of All is going to end up breaking up for the elections or before next year. Cristina Kirchner, through La Campara, controls the state funds where money can be obtained to finance militants. She fundamentally controls the ANSES, AFIP, PAMI, AFI, and they have appointed four or five thousand militants there. That group will never let go of his hand. Grupo Clarín pays me two criminal lawyers for almost three years now, I wonder how Baratta does with a state pension to pay for criminal lawyers. There has to be black silver that is behind. Cristina is going to continue to be a factor of power in Argentina because she has obviously concentrated power, she has concentrated militancy, she has concentrated money, they have concentrated intelligence groups and lawyers who continue to respond to her.
News: Were you afraid of being arrested?
Santoro: My lawyers told me that one of the possible scenarios was that the judge would declare my arrest, so I took a backpack with my heart pills, a toothbrush, a book, a change of underwear and some other essentials. In the end, I did not end up in preventive detention, but I was embargoed for two years and prosecuted with a ban on leaving the country. This created fear and self-censorship of the journalistic union. Thanks to the support of national and international organizations, these prosecutions were annulled. Today, the government is still appealing those decisions through the Financial Information Unit (UFI), despite the fact that I have no complaints for money laundering.
*Fernando Stevens is a student of the School of Communication Profile.
by Fernando Stevens
