Former Secretary of Public Works K tried to justify his role in the bribery scheme and stated that he fulfilled his functions “within the parameters of politics”.
However, López now assured that he never saw Cristina Kirchner “as the head of an illegal association” and sought to explain his previous regret because of the personal context she was going through. As he said, if he had been in a different mood, he would not have made that statement as a repentant
José López, the former Secretary of Public Works of the governments of Néstor and Cristina Kirchner, was once again at the center of the judicial scene because of his statements in the case of the bribe books. The same official who was arrested in 2016 after trying to hide bags with almost 9 million dollars in a convent in General Rodríguez, now sought to relatize his own role within the illegal collection system that he had described years ago as an accused collaborator
.During his statement this Thursday, López said that he was called to join “a legitimate government elected by the people” and stated that he felt that he was fulfilling his functions “within the parameters of politics.”
The phrase did not go unnoticed: the former official did not deny the facts he had told when he declared that he was sorry, but he tried to present his actions as part of a valid political dynamic.
The former member of the Public Works department had provided relevant details about the alleged collection of bribes from companies benefiting from State contracts. In that statement, he had pointed out how the illegal collection circuit worked and how that system reached the top of Kirchner power. He had also mentioned Daniel Muñoz, Néstor Kirchner's private secretary, as a key figure in
The twist is central because it does not deny the mechanism, but rather attempts to reinterpret it. López did not say that what he said was false, but he questioned the conditions under which he decided to speak. In fact, his new position seems to aim less at denying the existence of corruption and more at justifying it as part of an internal logic of
power.
In another part of his statement, the former official maintained that his work in the national government was a continuation of his previous work in Santa Cruz with the Kirchners. He also stated that “the pace of politics” does not always allow us to warn when certain limits are crossed, especially when decisions have “institutional support”
.This explanation once again puts one of the biggest causes of corruption in Kirchnerism under the spotlight. For López, the problem would not have been the operation of the system, but rather to have counted it
.
