Man detained after pointing handgun at Argentine Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

[peppertree]

A man has been detained by police after he aimed a handgun at Cristina Fernández de Kirchner at point-blank range as the Argentine vice-president returned to her apartment in Recoleta, Buenos Aires.

Fernández de Kirchner, 69, was not injured in the suspected assassination attempt Thursday night, said government officials. The perpetrator was quickly detained by the federal police and the former president's bodyguards.

A 35-year-old Brazilian national, Fernando Sabag Montiel, pointed the gun at the vice-president's head at 9 p.m. as she got out of a car that was driving her from Congress to her residence.

The suspected attacker reportedly approached Mrs. Kirchner from a waiting crowd of supporters that have been holding a vigil outside her apartment block, before asking for an autograph for a copy of her best-selling 2019 autobiography, Sinceramente.

As the vice-president greeted supporters, he pulled the weapon - though the gun did not fire. A melée ensued and the vice-president was removed from the area, although she continued to speak with others who were present.

At: https://www.batimes.com.ar/news/argentina/man-arrested-for-attempting-to-assassinate-vice-president-cristina-fernandez-de-kirchner.phtml

Link to tweet

News camera footage showing Argentine Vice-President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner greeting supporters outside her Buenos Aires apartment at 9:00 p.m. tonight, during which an assailant can be seen pointing and firing a .38 caliber handgun at her.

The weapon did not discharge.

Mrs. Kirchner, who was unharmed, is facing charges of self-dealing related to highway contracts signed during her 2007-15 administration - a trial which has further divided the country's already polarized politics.

While the assailant's motives have yet to be determined, he reportedly had a black sun tattoo - commonly associated with neo-Nazis. A right-wing sympathizer had been arrested on August 5th after screaming death threats at her though a megaphone at the same site.

President Alberto Fernández called it "the gravest incident since we regained our democracy (in 1983)," and declared a federal holiday for Friday.

[kacekwl]

1. Thank goodness that gun didn't fire.

You could hear the click point blank at her head. That's one lucky woman, scary.

[peppertree]

2. Indeed. And it was bound to happen, given all the right-wing vitriol in Argentina.

As you can imagine, Argentine right-wingers have been busy flooding the zone with insinuations that "the incident was staged!"

The Twitterverse is full of "how could that gun not fire?" "she staged it for sympathy!" etc.

Well, you don't need to know much about ballistics to realize that, occasionally, misfires do (of course) happen. This one seemed to be a dud, probably on account of the rounds being expired.

It's hard to overstate the sheer hatred against this woman on the right.

A lot of it is the product of years of relentless media smears - many of them with racist undertones ("she lets in all these indians so they'll vote for her!" "the great replacement is upon us!" etc.).

The closest parallel here in the U.S. has to be Hillary Clinton - against whom many of the very same attacks, and so much of the same kind of hatred, has been aimed for so many years now as you know.

Because as always - when you have nothing to show for yourself, your only bet is name-calling.

And sometimes worse.