Above Photo: Moment when Argentinian Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is being pointed with a gun at point-blank range. Miraculously the firearm did not discharge. Merco Press.
Argentinian Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner survived an assassination attempt this Thursday, September 1, when a man pointed a gun in her face and made the gesture of pulling the trigger before a crowd of her supporters and security agents surrounded him.
The incident occurred late on Thursday evening when Fernández was getting down from her car in front of her home in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta and greeting supporters who have been on vigil there for almost two weeks, showing their support against the political-judicial persecution that is trying to disqualify her from the 2023 presidential race. In the crowd, a man approached the vice president and pointed a pistol in her face at point-black range and tried to pull the trigger. However, the gun did not fire, possibly due to some snag in the barrel.
In the confusion a group of Fernández supporters surrounded him, and some law enforcement agents captured the attacker who was later identified as 35 years-old Fernando André Sabag Montiel, a Brazilian citizen who had previously been arrested in 2021 for a minor incident. The weapon used by the attacker was an Argentinian-made BERSA semi-automatic gun of 0.32 caliber, fully loaded with five bullets, which could have killed or gravely injured Fernández had a shot been discharged.
Initially, mainstream Argentine media described the incident like a person had been arrested for holding a gun while being in the vigil in front of Fernández’s home. However, within a little while videos began circulating on social media platforms showing the gravity of the incident that can only be described as an assassination attempt.
Kawsachun News tweeted reports from Argentine media channel C5N that showed a social media photo of the attacker, in which he is seen with the Sonnenrad/Black Sun Nazi symbol tattoo in his arm.
A few hours after the incident, Argentinian President Alberto Fernández, in a short televised address to the nation, repudiated the incident and explained that for some reason not yet understood the firearm did not discharge despite the trigger having been pulled. He declared national holiday for Friday September 2, to let the country deal with the criminal incident and also to let Argentinians mobilize to express their repudiation.
International condemnation
Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro was among the first heads of states to condemn the incident publicly. He wrote on his Twitter account: “We send our solidarity to Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner after the attempt on her life. We strongly repudiate this action that is trying to destabilize the peace of the Argentine people. The Great Homeland is with you compañera!”
President Luis Arce of Bolivia also wrote a tweet denouncing the incident. “We emphatically repudiate the attempt on the life of sister Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, vice president of Argentina.,” he wrote. “We, the Plurinational State of Bolivia, send all our support to her, her family, the Argentine government and people.”
Former Bolivian President Evo Morales said: “We condemn the cowardly assassination attempt against our sister Cristina Fernández de Kirchner. All our solidarity to the vice president. The Great Homeland is with you sister. The criminal right servile to imperialism will not pass. The free and dignified people of Argentina will defeat it.”
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said, “From Cuba, dismayed by the attempted assassination against Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, we convey all our solidarity to the vice president, the government and the Argentine people.”
Chilean President Gabriel Boric condemned the incident in a Twitter post. “The assassination attempt on the vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández, deserves the repudiation and condemnation of the entire continent,” he wrote. “My solidarity with her, the government and the Argentine people. Debate of ideas and dialogue should always be the path, weapons or violence never.”
Peruvian President Pedro Castillo also expressed his solidarity with the vice president of Argentina. “All my solidarity with Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner and the Argentine people,” he wrote on Twitter. “The Peruvian government condemns the attack against her life that took place today. We repudiate any act of violence.”
Even far-right Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso posted a tweet in the same vein as the rest of the presidents of the region. “I condemn the attack committed against Vice President Cristina Fernández and I send Ecuador’s solidarity to the Argentine government of Alberto Fernández. We believe in democracy and peace. We reject hate and violence,” he wrote in the post.
Until the time of publishing this article, Colombian President Gustavo Petro and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador were yet to comment on the incident. However, the Foreign Affairs Secretariat of Mexico, through its official Twitter account, expressed the repudiation of the Mexican government against the attempt on Cristina Fernández’s life.
Former president of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, and former president of Brazil and presidential candidate for October’s election, Luis Inacio Lula da Silva also condemned the assassination attempt and expressed their solidarity for the Argentinian vice president and the people of Argentina.