Lucia Salinas
02/24/2021 17:31
Clarín.com
Politics
Updated 02/24/2021 5:39 PM
The phone rang 3,000 kilometers away.
On the other side, an anxious Lázaro Báez was heard, an unusual state for him.
He communicated with his children living in the south, prior to the reading of the verdict, which surprised everyone by how high the penalties were.
They speculated over the years, but everything was superior.
He told his children that he had no doubts
that they would find him guilty because "justice is not going to look bad with the media."
In addition, he asked them to "be calm."
In different houses, those that were raided by justice, they heard the verdict that found them all guilty, although with different penalties.
Martín, however, did it from the Ezeiza Prison.
Nerves, anxiety, and fear marked the hours prior to the reading of the ruling in the Báez family.
"The anxiety whatever, is that it ends, the trial takes two and a half years but the cause since 2013," they indicated from the environment.
Eight years ago they lost the low profile that Lázaro jealously harvested, they were left seized, financially inhibited, with a business conglomerate in marked decline.
Lázaro Báez was
not wrong in anticipating to his children that he would be found guilty by the Federal Oral Court 4 (TOF 4).
The point of dissent is that for him everything responds to a persecution for having been a friend of Néstor Kirchner and to harm the current vice president.
For the Justice, he was responsible for having
laundered 60 million dollars between 2010 and 2013,
using Austral Construcciones the firm that began operating in May 2003 and which was inactive in December 2015, as a symbol of the end of the cycle.
Under house arrest, with an electronic device with which he is supervised by the Ministry of Justice and with a 24-hour police slogan,
Cristina Kirchner's
former business partner
heard from 1:30
p.m.
the verdict read by Judge Nestor Costabel.
He did it from the property located in Greater Buenos Aires, whose domicile remains under reservation and that despite owning 1,412 assets, does not belong to him: they presented it to him.
Leandro Baez in Río Gallegos.
From a distance, in Río Gallegos,
his son Leandro followed the reading of the ruling in the study of his lawyers Roberto Herrera and Alejandro Baldini
.
His sisters did the same but each one in their home, the same ones that were raided in 2016 by the federal justice, the same ones that according to the file that led them to receive a conviction this Wednesday, were acquired with funds of illicit origin, because the bought Lazaro.
Thousands of kilometers from the capital of Santa Cruz and in an absolutely different context, Martín, the eldest of businessman K's male children, followed the reading of the sentence from the Ezeiza prison where he has been detained two years ago.
There, he was surprised by the nine-year prison sentence that they applied to him.
His main communication is with his wife who is installed in Buenos Aires and was able to visit him a few times last year as a result of the health protocols applied in prisons as a result of the Covid.
Martín Báez, the son of businessman K who is imprisoned in Ezeiza.
In the visiting room of the Ezeiza Prison where he was admitted on April 5, 2016, Lázaro reiterated a request to his children: to stay together, not to confront.
The family had more than ten lawyers since the K-Money Route began. They reached the end of the trial with separate defenses, even.
On this occasion,
Lázaro by phone asked his children before the reading of the sentence, to be calm
.
The internal explanation was the following: "There will be conviction, justice will not want to look bad with the media and society."
Until the last moment, before the conclusion of the trial, Cristina Kirchner's former partner remained convinced that everything was due to persecution.
A few blocks away, in the capital of Santa Cruz where he forged much of his empire of 1,412 properties - and for justice, where the illicit businesses originated - his children separately followed the ruling.
Luciana Báez, daughter of Lázaro Báez, leaves the courts of Comodoro Py.
Norma Calismonte, Lázaro's ex-wife, was not exempt from the whole scene, and until July 2019, since he was detained in April 2016, she did not stop traveling and visiting him in prison.
Worried, restless, nervous, that's how the Báez mother went through the previous hours, who ended up all condemned: Martín (9 years old), Leandro (5 years old), Melina and Luciana (3 years in suspense).
The subsequent anguish was inevitable.
Norma was accompanied by her daughter Melina, and Leandro remained with his lawyers outlining the strategy to follow, they did not expect a five-year accusatory sentence against him.
It will only be on April 26 when the grounds of the ruling are known and the appeal instance will begin.
A long process still lies ahead.
Melina Baez in the Federal Courts of Comodoro Py.
The triggering data was when they heard that Lázaro was being given twelve years in prison, another high sentence followed for Martín that will still leave him behind bars.
The few expectations of the Báez clan vanished within a few minutes of the reading of the verdict.
Lázaro Báez's call was to reassure his children.
Mitigating the inmates who signed the family since their arrest, the last talks with their heirs were limited to issues of the family, the arguments of the lawyers since they do not share the defense.
There was, however, the last few days, no communication with his ex-wife.
When Lázaro Báez began to serve house arrest accompanied by his new girlfriend, the dialogue was increasingly sporadic and through the lawyer of businessman K. End of another cycle.