A federal judge in Argentina on 2 July authorised Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva to visit former Argentine leader Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at her Buenos Aires residence, where she is serving a six-year corruption sentence under house arrest. The ruling responded to a request filed by Kirchner’s lawyers, satisfying court rules that require prior approval for extraordinary visitors. Lula, in the Argentine capital for Thursday’s Mercosur summit, arrived at Kirchner’s apartment around 12:30 p.m. local time and stayed for about an hour. The encounter was not on the Brazilian president’s published schedule, but it coincided with his assumption of the bloc’s rotating presidency and underscored the longstanding political affinity between the two leaders. Kirchner, 72, began serving her sentence at home on 17 June after Argentina’s Supreme Court upheld her conviction and lifetime ban from public office. While Lula’s visit was cleared, he had no bilateral meeting planned with host President Javier Milei, reflecting the cool relations between the two neighbours despite the ceremonial hand-over of Mercosur’s leadership earlier in the day.