Through a letter published on her social networks, the Vice President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, criticized the decision of the Prosecutor’s Office to rule out a political motive behind the assassination attempt against her in September 2022. Her lawyers asked the investigation into a possible financing of the Argentine right to the perpetrators of the crime.
First modification:
“The entire investigation was characterized by avoiding knowing the truth,” Fernández said in his letter. The vice president strongly criticized the role of the Argentine prosecutor, Carlos Rívolo, whom she accuses of being “negligent” for not taking into account all the evidence provided by the prosecution and trying to close the investigation file.
“It is not understood how or why Rívolo intends to close a case in full process, in which, necessarily, the responsibility of the material authors is tied to that of any person who has collaborated from ‘behind'”, remarked the one who was president of Argentina in the period from 2007 to 2015.
The Argentine Prosecutor determined that there are no elements to support the thesis that members of the political opposition could be involved in the financing or organization of the assassination attempt to the vice president In addition, she assured that the investigation will be limited to the three detainees for their participation in the crime.
According to Rívolo, the defendants “did not receive any sum of money during the two years prior to the attack that would suggest that they had been financed to carry out an act like the one investigated here.”
It would not be possible “to consider that there has been an organization of any kind, political party or supporter, person or group of people who have, in some way, financed, planned, covered up or contributed in any way to the accused,” the prosecutor concluded.
The frustrated assassination
On September 1, 2022, Fernando Sabag Montiel attempted to fire a weapon at Cristina Fernández as she was going to her apartment in Buenos Aires. However, the weapon jammed and failed to detonate. Montiel was detained by the Argentine political security forces.
Then, the capital’s police arrested Brenda Uliarte, a sentimental partner from Montiel accused of being an accomplice in the assassination attempt. In addition, days later, Nicolás Carrizo, an alleged friend of the couple who also collaborated with the perpetrator of the attack, was arrested.
“I pulled the latch back, and when I pulled the trigger the shot didn’t come out. In the midst of so much tumult and so many people I was nervous,” Montiel declared from jail, months after his imprisonment.
The judge in charge of the case, María Eugenia Capuchetti, found the trio guilty of attempted murder, although Fernández has expressed his skepticism on multiple occasions about the theory that these three people could act alone without any external order.
The vice president’s legal team has demanded that the Prosecutor’s Office investigate possible ties of the detainees with members of the Argentine right, especially with deputy Gerardo Milman, linked to the presidential campaign of Patricia Bullrich, former security minister during the Administration of Mauricio Macri .
The leftist leader is an essential element for Kirchnerism today. Despite her disqualification from launching a presidential campaign, due to a legal process that is active against her, Fernández continues to be an icon in the Argentine political imagination.
With EFE and local media