The Upper House voted on Thursday to expel Senator Edgardo Kueider from Congress after he was arrested in Paraguay with over US$200,000 of undeclared cash while crossing the border from Brazil.

Senators voted to expel Kueider by a margin of 60 to six, with one abstention. Kueider’s seat will be granted to Deputy Senator Stefania Cora, a member of the Unión por la Patria (UxP) opposition associated with Maximo Kirchner’s organization La Cámpora. 

The Argentine Constitution states that Congress members can remove a fellow lawmaker in cases of “physical or moral incapacity” that transpires after term starts. Lawmakers have legal protection for the duration of their terms in office. They cannot be arrested unless they are caught committing a crime.

Kueider, a UxP senator for Entre Ríos, was stopped for a routine check at the three-way border between Argentina, Paraguay, and Brazil on December 4. Customs officials found he had over US$200,000, AR$600,000 (US$576 at the official dollar exchange rate) and 3.9 million Paraguayan guaranies (around US$500). When asked, he could not justify the source of the funds. The sum far exceeds the US$10,000 limit for undeclared cash.

Kueider was traveling with his secretary, Iara Guinsel Costa. A Paraguayan court ordered both of them to remain in house arrest in two apartments Kueider owns in a building in Asunción. They also have to pay bail of US$150,000 each and cannot leave Paraguay.

On Thursday morning, before the session began, police searched several of Kueider’s properties in Buenos Aires and Entre Ríos, following a warrant issued by Argentine federal judge Sandra Arroyo Salgado, who is investigating Kueider for corruption and money laundering in a different case. 

Salgado also sent a document to Vice President and Senate head Victoria Villarruel to formally request that the Upper House strip Kueider of the legal protection he enjoys as a lawmaker — known as fueros — so she can proceed to order his extradition and arrest. Senators have to vote for the request, his suspension or expulsion, with a majority of two thirds of the votes to deprive him of this legal protection.

Kueider is currently being investigated in Paraguay for attempted smuggling. According to the Economic Crime and Money Laundering Prosecution’s Office (PROCELAC, by its Spanish initials) Kueider has allegedly made the same trip six times since February, always alongside Guinsel Costa.

According to news reports, Judge Arroyo Salgado based her request on the several trips Kueider made to Paraguay in 2024 and the fact that he had switched documents relating to his apartment expenses into Guinsel Costa’s name, instead of his company Betail S.A.

Kueider was elected to the Senate in 2019 for UxP, but has consistently voted with ruling party La Libertad Avanza (LLA) since it took office. He was one of two Peronist senators to vote for President Javier Milei’s flagship Ley Bases law, earning condemnation from within the party. Both parties are now seeking to shift blame to the other for the senator’s alleged wrongdoings.

‘Caught in the act’

During a special session that took place outside the regular Senate schedule, UxP senators accused him of selling his vote and backed his expulsion. Lawmakers from LLA, however, said they would prefer to vote for his suspension instead. 

“We tried to find common ground so that the due process is respected, and if later he has to be expelled, then he will be expelled,” said LLA Senator Bartolomé Abdala.

“Maybe some are scared he will talk about where he got the money from,” said UxP Senator Oscar Parrilli during the debate. LLA had promoted a motion to discuss suspending Parrilli, too, since he was indicted in the case investigating the signing of a memorandum between Argentina and Iran regarding the 1994 AMIA bombing. However, senators voted to only discuss Kueider’s situation.

“He was caught in the act, which is a direct motive for declaring his moral incapacity and his expulsion,” Senator Guadalupe Tagliaferri from LLA-allied party PRO told LN+ channel after speaking at the session. 

“Both sides are doing moral acrobatics: Peronism is choosing to forget all of their corruption cases, and the ruling coalition is speculating so that Kueider is not expelled and they don’t lose one of their seats,” she added.

The Unión Cívica Radical has also backed several of LLA’s proposals in Congress this year. While most of their senators were expected to vote for Kueider’s suspension instead of his expulsion, several changed their minds after Arroyo Salgado’s request for removal of his legal protection.