Argentina: Mass protests in support of Vice President Kirchner a day after her assassination attempt

Tens of thousands of citizens in Argentina demonstrated yesterday Friday in several cities, after the shock caused to the country’s public opinion by the assassination attempt on Thursday of Vice President Cristina Kirchner.

“Enough with the hate!” read the banners held by protesters in Buenos Aires, in the largest demonstration to take place in the Argentine capital in a long time.

President Alberto Fernandez had declared yesterday a public holiday, while he described the assassination attempt of the former president of the country (from 2007 to 2015) “an event of enormous seriousness, the most serious that has occurred since the restoration of democracy in our country”. in 1983.

On Thursday night at around 9pm (local time), a man who appeared to have acted alone pointed a loaded gun at Kirchner’s head at close range as she greeted supporters outside her home in Buenos Aires . According to the images, the man appears to pull the trigger, but his gun did not fire.

“Cristina is alive because for some reason, which has not yet been technically confirmed, the gun containing five bullets did not go off, although the trigger was pulled,” explained Fernandez in his statements shortly after the incident.

According to her lawyer Gregorio Dalbon, Kirschner “did not realize at the time that there was a gun.”

The man, who was immediately arrested, was identified as Fernando Andre Sabag Montiel, 35, a Brazilian national with an Argentinian mother and a Chilean father, according to police sources cited by Argentina’s official Telam news agency.

He has been living in Argentina since 1993 and was arrested in 2021 for possessing a sharp weapon.

So far the man has refused to answer the questions of the judge and the prosecutor who have taken over the case, while he has already undergone a psychiatric examination, according to which he is mentally healthy.

At the moment, the motives of his act are not known.

“Wake up Argentinians”

A man, named “Mario” who said he had been friends with the attacker since their teenage years, described him on Telefe television as a “mythomaniac”, a “marginal” lost after his mother’s death, who “often is under the influence of alcohol.”

In several photos he has posted on his Instagram account, Fernando Sabag appears to have several tattoos on his arms, one of which is a black sun, a symbol associated with neo-Nazi organizations.

The assassination attempt was immediately condemned by the entire political class of Argentina.

Pope Francis, a former archbishop of Buenos Aires, sent a message of “solidarity” in which he says he prays “so that social harmony and respect for democratic values ​​will always prevail”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said he was “shocked” by the assassination attempt, which he “condemned”. The US also “strongly condemned” it, with US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken saying on Twitter that Washington stands “with the government and people of Argentina in their rejection of violence and hatred”.

In Buenos Aires, the Plaza de Mayo, a place where Argentines historically gather, was packed with people, as were many avenues leading to it, following an appeal by the ruling Frente de Todos coalition and movements.

“If they hit Cristina, what boo…come on she’s getting ready!” (“Si la tocan a Christina, que quilombo se va a armar”), this song was heard everywhere in the square by the fans of the 69-year-old Kirschner.

Marches were held in Santa Fe, Rosario, Córdoba, Tucuman and many other cities, local media reported.

“I came to support above all democracy and Cristina, to let her know that we are here. And to see if the Argentines will wake up, if they will realize that we cannot go this way,” said Adriana Spina, a 61-year-old pensioner.

Cristina Kirchner, current vice-president of the country and president of the Senate, remains seven years after her departure from the presidency of Argentina a politician with a particularly great influence in the country.

He is currently on trial for a corruption case. On August 22, the prosecutor requested that she be sentenced to 12 years in prison and barred from holding elected office for life. Kirchner, who denies the allegations, is filing a civil lawsuit.

After the prosecutor’s announcement, every night hundreds of her supporters gather in front of her house to sing their support. It was at one of these gatherings, which remain calm, that the attack took place, which for many Argentinians was a turning point.

“There was already a level of verbal and symbolic violence, but now it has been put into practice. This is a turning point,” said Diego Reynoso, a political scientist at the University of San Andres.

Kirchner, who has not made any statement since the attack, left her home yesterday afternoon, after greeting her supporters for a few minutes, and headed for an unknown destination.

Source: AMPE