On November 6, 2025, Argentina found itself at the crossroads of history and controversy, as two events—one rooted in the past, the other unfolding in the present—converged to spotlight the nation’s ongoing struggle with corruption, leadership, and regional identity. In Buenos Aires, former president Cristina Kirchner, once a towering figure of the Argentine left, appeared via Zoom for the opening of a new corruption trial described as the largest in the country’s legal history. Meanwhile, in Mar del Plata, more than 150 delegates from across Latin America and beyond gathered to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the region’s dramatic rejection of the U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), a moment many still hail as a turning point for Latin American sovereignty.
Kirchner, now 72, is no stranger to the courtroom. Already serving a six-year sentence for fraud under house arrest, she faces fresh charges in what has become known as the "notebooks" case. This sprawling investigation, which prosecutor Estele Leon called “the biggest ever corruption investigation in Argentina’s legal history,” centers on handwritten records kept by a government chauffeur. The notebooks allegedly detail years of cash bribes delivered from businessmen to government officials between 2003 and 2015—a period that encompasses Kirchner’s tenure as both first lady and president, and later as vice president until 2023.
The accusations are as explosive as they are sweeping. Kirchner stands accused of leading a criminal enterprise that raked in millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for lucrative state contracts. She is not alone in the dock: a total of 87 people, including dozens of business leaders and a former minister, are charged in the case. If convicted, Kirchner faces an additional six to ten years behind bars, though she would likely seek to serve any new sentence under house arrest, as she currently does—her movements monitored by an electronic ankle bracelet.
Kirchner’s defense team, for its part, has attacked the credibility of the prosecution’s star evidence. They claim the infamous notebooks were altered over 1,500 times, raising questions about their reliability. Yet the trial presses on, drawing intense scrutiny from both supporters and critics of the former president. Her political career, once thought unassailable, effectively ended in June 2025 when Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld her previous corruption conviction related to public works contracts in Patagonia, barring her from holding public office for life.
Still, Kirchner has not faded quietly into the background. She remains a polarizing presence, revered by many on the left and reviled by the right. Even under house arrest, she continues to rally her base through social media and by greeting well-wishers from her Buenos Aires balcony. Her efforts to retain leadership of the Peronist movement—a political force named after postwar leader Juan Perón—have sparked tensions with other prominent figures, most notably Buenos Aires governor Axel Kicillof, who is widely viewed as a potential presidential contender.
"Peronism is going through a leadership crisis," political analyst Raul Timerman told AFP, underscoring the uncertainty gripping a movement that has dominated Argentine politics for decades. The crisis has only deepened in the wake of the recent midterm elections, which saw the Peronists suffer a stinging defeat at the hands of President Javier Milei’s party. Milei, a self-styled economic radical, has championed a free-market agenda in stark contrast to the interventionist policies favored by the Peronists.
While the Kirchner trial unfolded in the capital, Mar del Plata played host to a different kind of reckoning. There, 150 delegates from social movements spanning Brazil, Uruguay, Bolivia, Cuba, Mexico, Portugal, Haiti, Palestine, Chile, Nicaragua, Peru, and Paraguay gathered to reaffirm their commitment to the anti-imperialist spirit that, two decades earlier, led to the rejection of the FTAA. The event’s final declaration struck a defiant tone: “The world faces greater levels of inequality, injustice, and authoritarianism, with a growing concentration of financial and technological power that deepens poverty and limits the autonomy of countries in the Global South.”
Axel Kicillof, the Buenos Aires governor whose relationship with Kirchner is now marked by political rivalry, was among the event’s most prominent speakers. Reflecting on the 2005 summit that buried the FTAA, Kicillof wrote on X, “The rejection of the FTAA was a victory for Latin American sovereignty, voiced by a group of presidents with enormous courage, represented in our country by Néstor Kirchner. Twenty years after that historic milestone, we have a responsibility to continue building unity, because there is no possibility of development for our countries outside the framework of regional integration. We cannot afford not to have a project on behalf of our people, because Argentina and the countries of Latin America are not anyone’s backyard.”
The FTAA, promoted by the George W. Bush administration, aimed to create a vast free trade zone by slashing customs barriers across the Americas. But left-wing and progressive leaders—including Argentina’s Néstor Kirchner, Venezuela’s Hugo Chávez, and Brazil’s Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva—fiercely opposed the agreement, arguing it would devastate regional industries and erode national sovereignty in favor of U.S. interests. The 2005 Summit of the Americas in Mar del Plata became a defining moment: as thousands protested outside, the proposal was defeated, and the anti-imperialist slogan “No to the FTAA” swept across the continent. Hugo Chávez’s fiery declaration, “FTAA, go to hell!” still echoes in the memory of many attendees.
This victory for the Latin American left set the stage for nearly a decade of progressive, pro-sovereignty integration efforts. But the political landscape has shifted dramatically since then. The rise of right-wing and neoliberal leaders—Javier Milei in Argentina, Daniel Noboa in Ecuador, and others—has fragmented the once-united front of progressive governments. Still, left-leaning leaders have managed to regain or maintain power in countries like Brazil, Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico, keeping alive the contest over the region’s future direction.
Adolfo Aguirre, Secretary of Foreign Affairs of the Argentine Workers’ Central Union (CTA), captured the significance of the moment: “In this very place, in front of the President of the United States, George W. Bush, and before the eyes of the whole world, our peoples, workers, together with leaders such as Néstor Kirchner, Hugo Chávez, and Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, marked a turning point. We said no to surrender, no to dependence, no to the model that wanted to turn our America into the backyard of economic power.”
As both the Kirchner trial and the Mar del Plata commemoration unfold, Argentina stands at a pivotal juncture. The drama of legal battles and the memory of historic resistance reveal a nation still grappling with questions of justice, leadership, and its place in a changing world. Whether the current wave of political and judicial reckonings will lead to renewal or further division remains to be seen, but the echoes of both past victories and present controversies are impossible to ignore.
