Although the annulment of the laws of `punto final' and `obediencia' passed with ease through the chamber of deputies last week, the senate was expected to provide the motion with a much sterner test. In particular, the senate was expected to raise questions over the judicial implications of such an annulment. The consensus among many lawmakers is that while congress can pass, reform, or repeal laws, it cannot annul them. The PJ is thought to have wanted the issue to be dealt with by a commission before a vote was taken.
In the end, though, the motion was passed with ease early this morning, with 43 senators voting to annul the laws, seven opposed, and one abstaining. Behind the PJ's acquiescence on the issue was the row between President Kirchner and his vice-president Daniel Scioli. Scioli, who also heads the senate, has publicly opposed the annulment of the amnesty laws, leading to a bitter row with Kirchner that erupted on Tuesday when the president demanded the resignation of three of the vice-president's government allies and denied Scioli an audience.
In approving the annulment, the PJ was showing where its loyalties lie in the dispute. As one senator said, 'If we don't deal with these laws the front page of every newspaper will say that Scioli used the senate to block the president'. Kirchner also benefited from the fact that Eduardo Duhalde was rumoured to be in cahoots with Scioli, prompting the former president to tell his supporters in the senate to vote with the government in order to make it very clear that no such link existed.
As well as backing the annulment motion, the senate also approved the adoption of the UN convention on the imprescriptibility of crimes against humanity, pushed ahead with a debate on a motion to allow the government to negotiate utility rates, and formed a tribunal to deal with supreme court judge Eduardo Moliné O'Connor. Kirchner is at least getting something out of a governmental dispute which has prompted talk of an institutional crisis.
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