Buenos Aires:
Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was unharmed on Thursday when a man with a loaded pistol tried to shoot her, but the gun did not go off, officials said.
The attack underscores the mounting political tension in Argentina and in the region that has put politicians from Colombia to Brazil on edge.
“A man pointed a gun at her head and pulled the trigger. Cristina is alive because, for some reason yet to be confirmed, the gun did not fire,” President Alberto Fernandez said in a televised address.
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Footage from a different angle shows the moment when a Brazilian citizen named Fernando Andrés Sabag Montiel pulled out a gun and tried to kill Argentina’s left-wing vice president Cristina Kirchner
— The gun failed notoriously at the last minute pic.twitter.com/JgmUlNuP2Q
— AZ ???? (@AZmilitary1) September 2, 2022
The president said the gun was loaded with five bullets.
“This is the most serious event we have seen since Argentina returned to democracy,” he said.
Fernandez de Kirchner is on trial on corruption charges and hundreds of supporters had gathered outside her home in Buenos Aires when the attack took place.
Video footage showed a man holding a gun a few inches from her head as she greeted supporters.
The attacker, who was identified by authorities as a 35-year-old man of Brazilian descent, was quickly arrested by police and the weapon seized.
Fernandez de Kirchner, who served as president for two terms between 2007 and 2015, is a divisive figure in Argentina. She could face up to 12 years in prison and possible disqualification from public office because of government contracts awarded in the early 2000s.
Fernandez de Kirchner is widely expected to run for Senate and possibly president in next year’s general election.
“When hatred and violence prevail over the debate, societies are destroyed and situations like this arise: attempted murder,” Economy Minister Sergio Massa said on Twitter.
Heads of state and political allies from across the region, including Chilean President Gabriel Boric, Venezuelan Nicolas Maduro, Peruvian Pedro Castillo and Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva denounced the attack in posts on Twitter and expressed solidarity with Fernandez de Kirchner and relief that she was not injured.
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