Brazil’s Lula visits Fernández de Kirchner under house arrest in Argentina

BUENOS AIRES (AP) – Brazil President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva visited former Argentina President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at her home Thursday, where the former leader is serving her six-year sentence for corruption under house arrest.

Fernández, 72, had asked the court’s permission to receive Lula, a longtime political and ideological ally. Lula was in Buenos Aires for the summit of the regional Mercosur trade alliance and made the short trip to Fernández’s home in Argentina’s capital after the meeting concluded.

Lula was inside with Fernández for just under an hour and they did not appear publicly together.

“His visit was much more than a personal gesture: it was a political act of solidarity,” Fernández wrote in a lengthy post later on X that included photos of the two embracing.

It was not Lula’s first show of support for Fernández since Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld her sentence last month. He had called her to express his support after her conviction.

Fernández had been convicted of directing state contracts to a friend while she was the first lady and president. The sentence also permanently bans her from holding public office.

Fernández dominated Argentine politics for two decades and forged the country’s main left-wing populist movement known as Kirchnerism, after her and her husband, former President Néstor Kirchner.

Lula has also faced imprisonment. While he was held in a police station in Curitiba in 2019, also for corruption, he received then-Argentinian presidential candidate Alberto Fernández, a political ally of Cristina Fernández who is not related to her. Lula’s conviction was later overturned.

Cristina Fernández on Thursday drew a parallel to Lula’s detention, noting that he too was a victim of “lawfare,” but noted that the public returned him to office.

Lula posted on X later as well, encouraging Fernández to continue “your fight for justice.”

“I know how important recognition is in the most difficult moments,” he wrote.