Argentina's scandal-hit president came out swinging with a fiery speech about justice on 1 March, retaking the initiative three days after being cleared of allegations that she tried to derail an investigation into a deadly 1994 bombing in Buenos Aires.

In mid-January 2015, Cristina Fernandez was accused of conspiring to cover up Iran's alleged role in the truck-bombing of the AMIA Jewish community centre. Prosecutor Alberto Nisman said Fernandez conspired to whitewash the bombing in order to complete a grains-for-oil deal with Tehran.

Days after levelling the charge, Nisman was found dead, with a bullet in his head and a gun by his side. His accusation and mysterious death hurt Fernandez's credibility and sent her government reeling while conspiracy theories multiplied.

In her first speech since a judge threw out the cover-up allegation on 26 February for lack of evidence, Fernandez took aim at her critics.

"To those who called on me to speak about the AMIA [case], I have spoken of the AMIA since '94. I have been (working on) AMIA since '96 when I denounced the ex-judge Galeano (referring to Jose Galeano who was assigned to investigate the case) and all those who covered up and did not allow the truth to be known. I have spoken of the AMIA case with the families since '96, supporting them and helping them. I have spoken of the AMIA and I will continue speaking in the United Nations, demanding justice as no other Argentine president has ever done. I do talk about AMIA," the two-term president shouted during her final annual address to Congress.

Fernandez said fault for the lack of progress in solving the 1994 bombing lies with the local justice system "and the intelligence services that covered up, and covered up, and did not permit the truth to be known."

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Fernandez has said former counter-intelligence chief Antonio Stiuso manipulated Nisman into making the cover-up allegation in order to smear her, and was then involved in his death.

On Thursday, Judge Daniel Rafecas "discontinued" the case brought by Nisman against Fernandez. Rafecas said the evidence presented "was exactly the opposite of what Nisman claimed."

In her address, she made clear her willingness to engage Nisman's charges.

"I read the entirety of the complaint [by late prosecutor Alberto Nisman] as well as the ruling of Judge Rafecas. I am not going to speak about the ruling of Judge Rafecas because the ruling speaks for itself.

"But I have to speak, I cannot avoid it, of the discovery - that I did not know and no Argentine knew - of the documents that were in the strongbox of Dr. Nisman and those which Dr. Rafecas referred to in his ruling," she said.

She added that the newly discovered evidence left her with a lot of questions.

"Which Nisman am I left with? With the one who accused us of a cover up or with the one who directed himself to me - because he directed himself to the "holder of the executive power" - recognising to me all that we had done, all that we had said so that I could make a presentation to the Security Council (of the United Nations)? What exactly happened? What happened in the period between the time that Prosecutor Nisman left for vacation and returned, that instead of presenting the documents that he had to give to the Security Council, he presented the complaint?" she said.

Fernandez is barred from running for a third term in October's election, in which a new president along with governors of 22 of Argentina's 24 provinces will be chosen.

Polls show the cover-up allegations and Nisman's death have damaged Fernandez's popularity, already strained by a weak economy, and may hurt government allied candidates in the October vote.

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