An Argentine federal prosecutor formally charged socialist former President Alberto Fernández on Wednesday with domestic violence against former first lady Fabiola Yañez.
Fernández stands accused by prosecutor Ramiro González of causing “doubly aggravated serious injuries” and making “coercive threats” against the former first lady. Some of the alleged violence occurred during Fernández’s presidency, from 2019 to 2023. Prosecutors also allege Fernández forced his partner to have an abortion in 2016.
Fernández had repeatedly declared himself to be the “first feminist” president of the country, though Argentina had already had its first woman president, his then-Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. Throughout his four-year term, the socialist, “feminist,” and notoriously pro-China former president spearheaded several “pro-women” initiatives such as legalization of abortion in Argentina and the creation of a now-defunct Ministry of “Women, Gender, and Diversity.”
The former Argentine president maintained a relationship with Argentine journalist and actress Fabiola Yañez since 2014. While they never married, Yañez served as Argentina’s first lady during Fernández’s presidency and the couple had a child in late 2022.
In early August, Yañez denounced Fernández for alleged acts of violence against her. In her testimony, Yañez stated that 2023 was the “worst and most violent” year for the former president’s actions against her and that Fernández had forced her to have an abortion in 2016, among other violent physical and verbal acts such as being trapped in the official residence of the president of Argentina.
The former first lady presented the formal complaint days after Argentine investigators found evidence of the alleged physical abuse committed by Fernández on the phone of his former private secretary. Investigators found the evidence as part of an ongoing and unrelated insurance fraud case that Fernández was charged for in early 2024.
Last week, the Argentine news outlet Infobae published pictures and text messages allegedly showing one instance of physical abuse committed by Alberto Fernández in August 2021. The former first lady, who currently lives with her two-year-old child in Spain, also denounced that she was already pregnant at the time Fernández beat her.
Yañez told Infobae that she sought help from the Ministry of Women, Gender, and Diversity — created during Fernández’s presidency — but received no assistance from its officials. The former first lady also accused Fernández of cheating on her with Cecilia Hermoso, who served as Fernández’s “digital communications adviser” and who managed an Instagram account that “belongs” to Fernández’s dog, Dylan.
The government of current President Javier Milei shut down the Women, Gender, and Diversity Ministry, finalizing its dissolution in June. The current Argentine government accused the former administration of creating the Ministry “for political-partisan purposes, to propagate and impose an ideological agenda, hire militants, and organize talks and events.”
In the formal accusation, Prosecutor González said that, from some point after Yañez began dating Fernández until now, she “suffered a relationship marked by harassment, psychological harassment, and physical aggression in a context of gender and domestic violence.”
According to local Argentine outlets, the court documents list nine different episodes of violence that Fernández stands accused of committing against Yañez between 2016 and 2023.
Among the nine listed stands the accusation of forced abortion. González said that the incident, caused “irreparable psychological damage” to the former first lady.
The documents also reportedly detail the physical abuse she suffered in August 2021, Fernández punching Yañez in the eye in July 2021, kicking her when she was pregnant, and other instances of violence that left the former first lady with injuries on her limbs. The prosecutor stated in the charges that Fernández “habitually” hit Yañez during the first half of 2023, leaving her cheek “boiling,” causing the former first lady to move to the presidential residence’s guest house.
The court document reportedly stated that, on June 28, Yañez received several phone calls and messages from Alberto Fernández, where he insisted to “end this as soon as possible.” Yañez allegedly received a call from the former president’s lawyer Juan Pablo Fioribello, who told her that “it was not good for her or for Fernández for her to file the report” because if she did so, “they would say things about her.”
“The purpose of these calls was to take advantage of the situation of emotional vulnerability that Mrs. Yañez was going through so that she would not instigate the criminal action in the present case,” González said.
Fernández claimed on Wednesday that the accusations against him of violence are “false” and that he is “the victim of a cruel operation.” The former president made his claims during an event where he formally presented his resignation as president of the leftist Justicialist Party. Fernández said that his resignation was because of his “duty and the need” to not involve the Justicialist Party in the accusations against him.
“I wish that no splinter of the media lynching to which I am being subjected can hurt this party in which men and women militate who did so much for gender equality and respect for diversity,” Fernández said.
“The facts that I am accused of are false. I am still waiting for Justice to act as such, to stop irregularly launching data through the media and to allow me to exercise my legitimate right of defense,” he continued. “With my soul hurt by so much mockery and being the victim of a cruel operation that also hurts my children, I greet every comrade with my commitment as always.”
President Javier Milei – a vocal dog lover – responded to Fernández being charged on Wednesday by offering to take care of Fernández’s dog Dylan, stressing that he will welcome the dog “so that we can take care of him in the family of the forces of heaven.”
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.