Argentine authorities investigated this Friday whether a Brazilian citizen acted on his own or following orders when he tried to attack Vice President Cristina Fernández, one of the main political figures in the country, the day before.
Of the detainee, identified as Fernando André Sabag Montiel, it is known until now that he is a street vendor and has lived in the country for decades, an official who asked not to be identified because he was not authorized to give information about the attack also told the AP. former president
“There is no confirmed hypothesis” about whether he acted alone or was sent by someone, so “everything is a matter of investigation,” said the official.
The event, which occurred Thursday night in the vicinity of the building where the former president resides in Buenos Aires, has generated a great commotion in the country and the supporters of the Peronist leader have scheduled a demonstration in the Plaza de Mayo in the next few hours.
For more than two decades Fernández has been a central figure in Argentine politics, where she has served as a legislator, president for two consecutive terms and now vice president.
The waters are divided between those who admire her for considering that she is a defender of social policies in favor of impoverished sectors and those who describe her as a demagogue and corrupt.
The 35-year-old Brazilian was arrested on Thursday night after pointing a firearm at the vice president in what President Alberto Fernández described as an attack that was foiled because the gun did not go off.
The detainee has lived in Argentina since 1998 and the police found a kitchen knife on him during a search on the streets of the capital in 2021, but he has no criminal record.
Images of the Brazilian obtained from his social networks, now inactive, and broadcast by the local media show him posing with his hands and arms full of tattoos that, according to social network users, are associated with Nazi symbology.
Senator Oscar Parrilli, one of the men closest to the vice president, told reporters that “Cristina is shocked and shocked” but “her spirit and temper are intact, and in this sense she is fine.”
Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti went to the building where the vice president lives to take her statement as a witness.
President Fernández ordered that Friday be a national holiday after describing the attack that occurred in front of the former president’s house as “the most serious event since we have recovered democracy” in 1983 after a seven-year military dictatorship.
The schools did not open their doors and there is hardly any activity on the streets of Buenos Aires and other cities.
Pope Francis expressed his solidarity with the vice president. “I pray that in beloved Argentina social harmony and respect for democratic values always prevail, against all kinds of violence and aggression,” the pontiff, of Argentine origin, said in a statement.
The aggression was condemned by the political leaders of the region. The presidents of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador; from Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro; from Bolivia, Luis Arce; from Chile, Gabriel Boric; from Uruguay, Luis Lacalle Pou; from Peru, Pedro Castillo; of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, and the president of Honduras, Xiomara Castro, added in the last few hours their messages condemning the attack
The former presidents of Brazil, Luiz Inácio Lula Da Silva, and of Bolivia, Evo Morales, are some of those who expressed their support.
The assassination attempt occurred at a time when the vice president is facing the first trial since she left the presidency in 2015 for allegedly having diverted dozens of road works during her government to a businessman close to her, which she denies.
Hundreds of supporters of the Peronist leader gather every day in front of her home to give her their support after the trial prosecutors requested a 12-year prison sentence for her.
That request for jail has increased the political tension in Argentina between those who point against the vice president and the militants of the ruling party who are constantly mobilizing in her support.
The aggressor was arrested seconds after pointing at the vice president and when she approached to greet the crowd that was waiting for her near the building where she resides.
The former president was unharmed because the weapon did not fire apparently due to a technical problem.
Until a few days ago there was a strong presence of the Buenos Aires police in the surroundings of the former president’s building, but after clashes over the weekend with her supporters, the vice president’s security was reduced to her guards and a few police officers. the federal police.
Senator Parrilli acknowledged that “without a doubt there is going to be a rethinking of the entire way and manner in which (the former president) contacted people.”
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