BUENOS AIRES — One month after the mysterious death of the prosecutor who had accused President Cristina Fernandez of an “alliance with terrorists,” a massive planned “silent march” in the heart of the country’s capital this week is providing clear evidence that the political, legal and strategic aftershocks for Argentina from the still-unsolved case are by no means over.
The demonstration, organized by late prosecutor Alberto Nisman’s colleagues and fiercely opposed by Fernandez loyalists, is emblematic of the highly charged atmosphere that has marked the president’s two terms — and seems certain to taint her legacy as she leaves office in December.
Since Jan. 14, when Nisman unveiled a supposed top-level cover-up of Iran’s suspected involvement in the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish community center in Buenos Aires, both sides of the political fray have been consumed by the twists and turns of the Nisman saga, though their interpretations of what happened could not be more different.
One sign of the country’s nervous mood: Security Secretary Sergio Berni told reporters Tuesday that federal agents within a five-block perimeter of Wednesday’s march won’t carry weapons for fear that “there could be provocations.”
The jurist’s violent death, which occurred just hours before he was supposed to detail his charges to Congress, is viewed an almost logical escalation by Ms. Fernandez’s detractors, who point to her administration’s aggressive confrontations with critical judges, prosecutors and journalists.
The president’s allies, though, claim that Nisman’s accusations — and the incessant coverage of his death — mark an attempt to destabilize the government, most likely orchestrated by the president’s most powerful foe: the Clarin media conglomerate.
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Whichever version they subscribe to, most Argentines, polls show, believe that Nisman — whose body was found on Jan. 19 alone in his guarded luxury apartment with a gunshot wound to his head — did not kill himself, but was the victim of a political murder. The conspiratorial climate engulfing all sides has been fueled by an investigation that so far has turned up very little.
Prosecutor Viviana Fein’s no-nonsense approach has been hampered by distractions that range from doubts over a contaminated crime scene to Ms. Fernandez’s chatty commentary on the case. So the focus has shifted to Nisman’s original charges, a case of possible executive malfeasance which has now been passed on to yet another federal prosecutor.
Gerardo Pollicita moved promptly to charge Ms. Fernandez with “aggravated concealment” and a number of lesser infractions that altogether, upon conviction, would carry a prison term of up to 5 years.
Under the guise of resolving the 1994 bombing, Ms. Fernandez and Foreign Minister Hector Timerman conspired to suppress international arrest notices for Iranian suspects in exchange for a trade deal with Tehran, the prosecutor alleged in a 61-page document submitted to Federal Judge Daniel Rafecas late last week.
Trump card
The trump card in the Mr. Pollicita’s hand, meanwhile, may be a numbers game related to the eight Iranian nationals whom Nisman’s special prosecutorial unit had indicted in the AMIA bombing, Joaquin Morales Sola, a prominent commentator for La Nacion, told The Washington Times.
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In 2007, Interpol had issued so-called “Red Notices” — designed to locate and arrest suspects — against five of the accused. The international police organization had refused to ask for the capture of the remaining three because they were covered by diplomatic immunity.
But that technicality should not have mattered when Buenos Aires and Tehran signed their memorandum of understanding to set up an AMIA truth commission in 2013, Mr. Morales Sola argued. Nevertheless, the document only mentions the five suspects sought by Interpol.
“Why did Argentina not speak about [all] eight?” the journalist asked. “Why did it only speak about five?”
Government officials, including Mr. Timerman, have staunchly denied any claim of political interference in the probe, insisting that only a judge could have compelled Interpol to quash the notices. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry, Mr. Timerman said the Fernandez government would not be drawn in to international intrigues or allow other countries to exploit the Nisman crisis.
Argentina, he wrote, would not become a “theater for operations of politics, intelligence or, even worse, more serious actions, because of conflicts that are completely unconnected with its history.”
And Anibal Fernandez, the president’s secretary general, minced no words when it came to Mr. Pollicita’s charges.
“It would seem that to say ’charged’ here is already like [saying] ’semi-convicted,’” said Mr. Fernandez, who is not related to the president, calling the prosecutor’s move “a clear maneuver of anti-democratic destabilization.”
The government last week tried to focus the debate on the creation of the new Federal Intelligence Agency set to replace the notorious Intelligence Secretariat, which Ms. Fernandez dissolved in the days after Nisman’s death. In a session boycotted by opposition lawmakers, the Senate approved the change on Feb. 12, and the House is set to pass the bill next week.
The embattled president, who on Wednesday will inaugurate a nuclear facility named after her late husband and predecessor, Nestor Kirchner, sought to rally her troops on Feb. 11 by flatly rejecting the idea of flying in U.S. experts from the FBI to help with Ms. Fein’s investigation.
“We are no low-grade country, nor a little banana republic, for them to come and give us advice,” Ms. Fernandez told supporters. Quebracho, a left-wing group whose leader, Fernando Esteche, has also been charged by Mr. Pollicita, echoed the sentiment in posters distributed in downtown Buenos Aires. They showed a U.S. seal and dubbed Nisman — along with presidential hopefuls Mauricio Macri and Sergio Massa — “anti-patriotic accessories.” A pro-government website upped the ante by calling the dead prosecutor a “U.S. Embassy informant.”
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