Last week, a judge in Argentina sent a jolt across the country by ordering the arrest of former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner on charges of treason. It was an indictment so powerful that the shock waves must have been felt all the way to Tehran and Beirut. If the government of Iran and the leadership of Hezbollah are not watching events in Buenos Aires very closely, they really should.
The case in Argentina has the power not only to bring an ignominious end to the careers of prominent Argentinian figures, but it is sure to put an unwelcome spotlight on the international terrorist activities of Iran and its allies.
Judge Claudio Bonadio charged Fernandez, or CFK as she is known in Argentina, with “treason against the homeland,” a crime punishable by 25 years in prison. The indictment was backed by 491 pages of detailed documentation, including more than 40,000 legal wiretaps that Bonadio says will prove that the former president and her aides engaged in an elaborate scheme to protect Iran from an investigation into the 1994 bombing of the Buenos Aires Jewish community center, or AMIA. The bombing, which killed 85 people and injured hundreds, remains Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack.