Large crowds protest in support of former Argentine President Cristina Fernandez as she starts house arrest

Former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner defies corruption charges, remains a powerful figure in Argentina's political landscape.

Vowing that a conviction on corruption charges and a permanent ban from public office would not end her decades-long political career, Argentina's former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner began serving a six-year sentence under house arrest as tens of thousands of her supporters rallied in the streets.

Her detention marked an ignominious turn for one of the most polarising and influential political leaders on Latin America's left who served one term as Argentina's first lady (2004-2007), two terms as its President (2007-2015) and one term as its powerful Vice-President (2019–2023), dominating the country's politics for the last two decades.

Still today, Ms. Fernández represents the face of Opposition to radical libertarian President Javier Milei. Polls suggest that she and her left-wing brand of Peronism, Argentina's nationalist populist movement championing workers' rights, retains the support of some 30% of the country.

"We will return, and, what's more, we will return with more wisdom, with more unity, with more strength,” Ms. Fernandez (72) told her ardent supporters in a speech recorded from home confinement and broadcast through loudspeakers into the streets of downtown Buenos Aires.

The case in which she was first convicted in 2022 found that she defrauded the state in awarding public works contracts to a friendly businessman. She vehemently denies the charges, accusing her opponents of weaponising the justice system against her.

Before the court decision this month, she had been planning to run for a seat in the Buenos Aires provincial legislature. “The real economic powers know this model has no future; they know it's collapsing, and that's why I'm in prison,” she said in her speech from her second-floor apartment in the southern Constitucion neighbourhood of the Argentine capital.

The scene of huge crowds setting off flares and chanting “We will return" underscored the sharp divisions in this South American nation that has long been shaped by Ms. Fernandez, who vastly increased welfare and public employment during her tenure in a dramatic expansion of the state that left Argentina with sky-high inflation and massive deficits.