The two-time president of Argentina Cristina Fernández was the victim of a firearm attack near her home on Thursday amid growing political tension. These are the images left by the event.
the vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner suffered an assassination attempt by a man who tried to shoot him with a firearm and was later arrested by police personnel, at a time when the head of the Senate was greeting militants who had gathered at the door of his home in the neighborhood porteño of Recoleta.
The detained person was a few meters from the former president and after being detected by police personnel was separated from the protesters and placed in a patrol car. He was later identified as Fernando Sabag, originally from Brazil, but with a Chilean father and an Argentine mother.
At the time there was a riot and Cristina Kirchner was removed from that area, although she continued to greet the rest of the militants as she did every day this week when she arrived from the Senate.
The episode occurred around 9:00 p.m. local time (8:00 p.m. in Chile), minutes after the former head of state arrived at her house located on Juncal street after a day of session in the Upper House, where they awaited her. hundreds of demonstrators to express their support.
While greeting those present, the attacker’s arm approached a few centimeters from the former president’s face and fired, but the shot did not come out.
The former president observes the sequence and manages to bow her head, while security personnel try to separate her from the situation and the militants also observe what happened.
The Minister of Security, Aníbal Fernández, confirmed minutes later that the detained person had a firearm.
“In the care of the case, a person who is indicated by those who were close to him shows that he had a weapon. She was detained by custody personnel, they set him aside, they seize a weapon and now the situation has to be analyzed by our scientific people to evaluate the traces, ”Fernández explained.
Police sources revealed that it is a weapona Bersa Thunder caliber 32 automatic and was fit to be fired.
Around midnight, President Alberto Fernández reported on national television that the weapon was loaded with five rounds, but that for reasons that had yet to be established the bullet had not come out.
The man arrested in the vicinity of the vice president’s house is a 35-year-old Brazilian national.
This is Fernando André Sabag Montiel, who has a history of carrying a knife from the year 2021.
The man was arrested by members of Cristina Kirchner’s custody, who separated him from the crowd and put him in a patrol car.
The case was left in the hands of federal judge María Eugenia Capuchetti, who must carry out the investigation and expertise in the case. This Friday she and she ordered a search of the subject’s home, finding the Federal Police 100 bullets in it.
political repercussions
The attempted assassination of the vice president caused a stir in national politics and leaders from all political arenas came out to repudiate the act and express their solidarity with the former president.
From former president Mauricio Macri, through the head of the Buenos Aires government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, the governor of Jujuy, Gerardo Morales, and opposition leaders such as José Luis Espert, they spoke out against the episode.
In addition, a joint press conference was held in Congress between the ruling party and the opposition in which the formation of a bicameral commission to investigate the attack on Cristina Kirchner was announced.
National holiday
Expressions of repudiation from the international community were also added, and Alberto Fernández declared this Friday, September 2, as a national holiday.
“We are facing a fact that has an extreme institutional and human seriousness. Our vice president has been attacked and social peace has been disturbed, ”warned the national president in a message on a national chain around midnight.
Fernández affirmed that “Argentina cannot lose another minute, there is no time”, and stressed that “it is necessary to banish violence and hatred from political and media discourse and from our life in society”.