BUENOS AIRES (Parliament Politics Magazine) – The vice-president of Argentina narrowly escaped being shot dead when the gunman’s gun jammed as he was aiming at her.
Video captures the moment Cristina Fernández de Kirchner came face to face with the loaded weapon while being surrounded by a crowd of fans.
The former president was travelling back home after appearing in court to answer corruption charges. She rejects the accusations.
Police reported that the shooter, who was identified by local media as a 35-year-old Brazilian guy, had been apprehended.
They are trying to determine why the left-leaning politician, who was the country’s first lady for four years before becoming the president in 2007 and in 2015 was attacked.
Five bullets were put into the gun, but it did not fire when the trigger was pulled, informed President Alberto Fernández.
The video on social media shows the gun emerge from the throng as Ms Fernández de Kirchner approaches. Initially she displays signs of confusion as she ducks to pick up something dropped on the ground.
Another video shows the crowd trying to shield Ms. Fernández de Kirchner from the alleged shooter as he approached her at close range. Since a few nights ago, people have been swarming in front of her house to show their support as she fights allegations that she defrauded the state and participated in a plot to transfer public funds while she was president.
A weapon was discovered a short distance from the site after the suspect had been apprehended, a police spokesperson told the Reuters news agency.
President Fernández, who was the chief of staff to her husband and herself during their terms in office, addressed the nation late on Thursday night. He said she was still alive because, for reasons unknown and not confirmed technically, the gun, loaded with five bullets, did not fire.
The attack on Ms. Fernández de Kirchner was among the most serious incidents since the nation came back to democracy in 1983, he continued, denouncing the attacker and the act.
In order to give Argentines time to “express themselves in defence of life, democracy, and in solidarity with our vice president,” President Fernández declared Friday a national holiday. “We can disagree, we can have deep disagreements, but hate speech cannot take place because it breeds violence, and there is no chance that violence can coexist with democracy,” he said.
Sergio Massa, Argentina’s minister of economy, referred to the attempted shooting as a “attempted assassination.”
He wrote in a tweet, “When hate and violence prevail over debate, societies are destroyed and situations like these arise: attempted assassination.”
As of yet, Ms. Fernández de Kirchner has not commented.
She is charged with cheating the state and fraudulently granting public works contracts in her stronghold in Patagonia During her tenure as president from 2007 to 2015.
Prosecutors have requested that the former president receive a lifelong ban from politics and a 12-year prison sentence if found guilty at trial.
Since she is the Senate President, Ms. Fernández de Kirchner has legislative immunity. Unless her sentence was upheld by the nation’s Supreme Court or she lost her Senate seat in the next elections at the end of 2023, she would not be put in prison.
Following her tenure as president, Ms. Fernández de Kirchner has been the subject of multiple corruption trials. This trial’s verdict is anticipated to take about a few months.
