In its latest edition, NEWS revealed a more than uncomfortable fact for Cristina Kirchner. Without any reason that justifies it, the vice president returned to using the official aircraft -which are exclusive to the head of state- to spend the holidays in El Calafate. CFK attacked this magazine with an unusual argument: that the image that illustrated the cover had not included the militant who accompanied her in the original photo. But he deliberately omitted to talk about the planes and the abuse he makes of them for vacation purposes that have nothing to do with his functions.
There were six trips of the Tango 11 -a learjet 60 with thirteen seats – between December 23 and 30, between the Jorge Newbery Airport and El Calafate, three outbound and three back. Half of the flights were “by ferry”, that is, they returned without her. The total of what the State spent on these displacements, according to the most conservative calculations made by sources linked to the field, is about 100,000 dollars. Just under $20,000 per flight.
Didn’t Cristina have another, less scandalous way of getting around? Can an attribution be arrogated that in the papers only corresponds to Alberto Fernández?
I will fly. The sources consulted agree: the planes Tango are for the exclusive use of the President, that you can even go on vacation in them if you consider it necessary for security reasons. As much as CFK integrates the Executive Power, he cannot use the aircraft in his capacity as deputy, nor could he sign a decree, unless he is temporarily replacing the chief executive.
radical leader Álvaro de Lamadrid, former resident of El Calafate, states: “He uses it and on top of it for private issues, with which there is a double legal violation.” The former deputy presented last May in Congress a draft declaration for “improper use” of the presidential fleet, when it transpired that the vice president had returned to the old custom of using state aircraft after some time traveling in Argentinian airlines. Between February and June, according to the response to a request for access to public information, the Tangos went back and forth between Buenos Aires and Santa Cruz at least thirteen times to move it. With a peculiarity: to go from El Calafate to Río Gallegos –a journey of minutes–, CFK had ordered to bring Tango 11 especially from Buenos Aires. That is to say, the plane flew more than 4000 kilometers so that the vice could cover a distance of only 300. By car it would be three hours at most.
The complainant De Lamadrid is the same one who started the case for the abuse of official planes when Cristina was president. In that case, she was prosecuted for alleged embezzlement and awaits the oral trial. The investigators agreed that it was not lawful for him to transfer the furniture and art paintings for his hotels in the Tango from Buenos Aires, but curiously they gave him the right to deliver newspapers and press summaries: they considered that, although it was not ethical , was justified because he needed to be informed. Was the internet not an option?
The yapa. The three Tango that are in operation today – 04, 10 and 11, in the absence of 01 which still needs to be repaired – are not the only aerial remises. Cristina also uses the plane of the state company YPF, another Learjet 60, although nothing authorizes it to do so. Those who discovered the maneuver are those responsible for the Aviones en Ezeiza blog, which has access to the flight plans of numerous official ships. The data from the site, which on Twitter shows these movements in real time, were checked with other reliable sources.
According to the statistics collected, from February 2021 until now there have been at least 30 Tango flights and the YPF plane between Buenos Aires and Santa Cruz –15 of them “by ferry” or empty–, which represents an expense of about 500,000 dollars. They were almost 60,000 kilometers traveled and 80 hours of navigation.
Last July, Cristina used the YPF plane to travel to the South. The surprise of an operator from the control tower at Aeroparque can still be heard in the audio that circulates through the networks: “Can you confirm me? Is he going out with the vice president?” That’s what the ship’s flight plan said, but the operator couldn’t understand.
The serious thing is that CFK does not believe that it should be held accountable for these irregularities, and that it continues to feel above the law.
She doesn’t run, she flies.
