Sen. Cruz Sends Letter to Secretary Blinken Calling for Imposition of Mandatory Sanctions on the Vice President of Argentina
WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas), member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, today sent a letter to Secretary of State Anthony Blinken calling for the State Department to expeditiously impose sanctions mandated by Congress on Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and her immediate family members.
In the letter, Sen. Cruz highlighted corruption charges recently brought by an Argentine Federal Prosecutor said that corrupt acts by Kircher had “for decades undermined the rule of law in Argentina, convulsed its political institutions, and undermined American interests” and in particular highlighted that “she is deeply implicated in the 2015 death of Argentine Special Prosecutor Alberto Nisman”:
“I write to bring your attention to increasingly brazen and now-public corrupt acts by Argentina’s former President and current Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, which have for decades undermined the rule of law in Argentina, convulsed its political institutions, and undermined American interests in the country and indeed the region. Perhaps most notoriously, but certainly not exclusively, she is deeply implicated in the 2015 death of Argentine Special Prosecutor Alberto Nisman, who was found shot in his apartment the day before he was set to present evidence to the Argentine Congress that would have proved Fernández de Kirchner colluded with Iran to cover up Iran’s role in the 1994 bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) in Buenos Aires, the worst terrorist attack in Argentina's history.
“Last week, an Argentine Federal Prosecutor formally implicated Fernández de Kirchner in what he described as “the biggest corruption scheme ever known in the country,”
“The evidence supporting the charges against Fernández de Kirchner is public, credible, and now backed by Argentina’s judicial system. Simply what has been verified if only by default – what her defenders have all but conceded – is already as or more significant than the evidence that the State Department recently presented as part of its justification for designating Velazquez. Meanwhile the consequences and threats of Fernández de Kirchner’s corruption stretch globally.
“I therefore urge you to process past and recent information about Fernández de Kirchner’s corrupt acts, and to impose a Section 7031(c) designation on her and immediate family members. As always, I stand ready to provide you and the Department with the resources you need to expeditiously conduct these important tasks.”
The full text of the letter can be found here.
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