A man was arrested Thursday night in Buenos Aires after pointing a loaded firearm at Vice President Cristina Kirchner as the latter was returning home. 20 minutes takes stock of this failed attack which was immediately condemned by the entire political class.
What happened Thursday night in Buenos Aires?
A man was arrested Thursday night in Buenos Aires after pointing his “loaded” firearm at Argentine Vice President Cristina Kirchner outside her home. According to footage from multiple televisions, the man pointed a handgun at Vice President Kirchner’s head, just a few feet away, with no shots fired, as she signed books and stood mingled with sympathizers, who came to wait for her at the bottom of her home, in the Recoleta district.
Police officers then seized the suspect, led him into a police car in an adjoining street, immediately surrounded by a thick cordon of police officers. This one left shortly after under the cries and boos of several dozen people present. According to several Argentine media, the suspect is a 30-year-old of Brazilian nationality, unconfirmed information from official sources.
On site, the crossroads in front of the building where Cristina Kirchner lives was quickly cordoned off after the attack with “crime scene” tapes, and the police took samples. “I saw this arm spring up over my shoulder behind me with a weapon, and with people around me it was overpowered”, told on the spot a support of Cristina Kirchner, who did not wish to give her name, and that TV footage clearly shows participating in the brief melee.
Who is Cristina Kirchner?
Adored by part of the Peronist left, a divisive personality hated by the opposition, Cristina Kirchner, 69, remains seven years after leaving the presidency an influential figure in Argentine politics, one year from a presidential election for which she did not make her intentions known. Cristina Kirchner, who left the presidency of Argentina after the presidential election on October 25, recovered with her husband Nestor the economy of the country after the crisis of 2001 and caused a rejection of her person, in particular in the wealthy classes.
In 2007, she took over from Nestor Kirchner (whom she met when she was a student, aged 20. They would have two children. He would become governor of the province of Santa Cruz, she would be a senator) to continue his action and she would have finally accentuated the confrontation with the economic establishment, in the forefront of which the farmers exporting soybeans and the powerful press group Clarin.
Cristina Kirchner, widow since 2010, has printed a confrontational style, breaking with Argentine political history. His popularity rating still exceeds 50% today. She is particularly adored by the poorest who benefit from family allowances, subsidies for electricity, water or gas bills, and even public jobs.
This lawyer, practicing Catholic, has legalized same-sex marriage, allowed transvestites to change sex in civil status without surgery. On the other hand, she is resolutely opposed to abortion. On the diplomatic level, Cristina Kirchner has displayed herself alongside Vladimir Poutine, Chinese and Iranian presidents and has approached the Bolivarian axis of Hugo Chavez (Venezuela), Raul Castro (Cuba) or Evo Morales (Bolivia ), moving away from traditional allies such as Europe and the United States.
Why are activists gathered outside Cristina Kirchner’s home?
Hundreds of activists have been gathering every evening for ten days in front of Cristina Kirchner’s home, to show their support for the former head of state (2007-2015), currently on trial for “fraud and corruption”. On August 22, the prosecution requested against her a sentence of twelve years in prison and life ineligibility, in this trial which concerns the awarding of public contracts in her stronghold of Santa Cruz (south), during her two presidential terms. .
In a highly polarized Argentine political landscape, the indictment gave rise to several demonstrations of support for Cristina Kirchner by the hard core of the Peronist left of which she is the figurehead. Rallies took place last week in several cities. And each evening, several hundred worshipers gathered near his home, singing and chanting their support.
A verdict in her trial is not expected until late 2022. Even if convicted, she enjoys parliamentary immunity as President of the Senate and may not go to jail or even run in the general elections of October 2023.
What are the reactions to this failed attack?
“Cristina is alive because for some reason that has not yet been technically confirmed, the weapon that contained five bullets did not fire despite having been triggered,” Argentine President Alberto Fernandez said in a statement. speech a few hours after the incident. The Head of State denounced a fact “of enormous gravity, the most serious to have occurred since our country regained democracy” in 1983. He announced that he had decreed a national holiday on Friday, “so that in peace and harmony, the Argentine people can express themselves in defense of life, of democracy, and in solidarity with our vice-president”.
Thursday evening’s incident was also immediately condemned by the entire government camp as well as by the opposition coalition “Juntos por el cambio” (Together for change). The leader of the right-wing opposition and successor to Cristina Kirchner in the presidency Maurico Macri (2015-2019) expressed his “absolute condemnation of the attack suffered by Cristina Kirchner, which fortunately had no consequences for the vice-president. president”.