The attack against Kirchner affects Argentine polarization

First modification: 09/03/2022 – 10:41

The assassination attempt suffered last Thursday night by the Argentine vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner It has tensed the situation in the country to the maximum. The attack was the first against a high-ranking official since Raúl Alfonsín replaced a soldier in the Casa Rosada in 1983 and had the widespread rejection of the entire political class of the country. But that consensus is far from the atmosphere on the street.

Tens of thousands of people demonstrated this Friday in Buenos Aires and the main cities of Argentina in repudiation of the attack in which Kirchner was unscathed, with calls for coexistence and an end to the acute political polarization with posters that read “Enough of hate”. However, in the meantime, the polarization seems to be accentuating and the truce due to the sensitivity of the moment seems utopian. Anti-Kirchnerist sectors consider that the attack was staged to distract attention on the cases of corruption faced by Fernández de Kirchner. Meanwhile, on the Kirchnerist side, the opposition and also the media are accused of inciting violence against the vice president through hate speech. The climate of polarization has even installed in some sectors the idea that, despite not providing any argument, everything responds to a montage by Peronism. In turn, Kirchner also considers himself herself as the victim of a plot in the form of judicial persecution, orchestrated by a right wing in which it places former President Macri, the big media and businessmen, and US aid.

The tension between Kirchnerists and anti-Kirchnerists, which has been fully installed in Argentine society for almost two decades, began a dangerous upward spiral in recent days since a prosecutor requested on August 22 12 years in prison against Kirchner for alleged corruption during his two governments (2007-2015) . The request for imprisonment was received with applause by detractors of the vice president and, at the same time, it activated a great wave of popular support among her supporters. Kirchner defended himself against the accusations of corruption two weeks ago with a speech on social media. She said that in Argentina there is a “judicial party” that has decided to ban her from politics, fearful that in 2023 she will be a candidate and obtain a third term.

The vice president has been dismissed in various cases, but He still faces five judicial processes. next week will start defense pleading stage in the trial against Kirchner and twelve other people for alleged corruption. It is estimated that his turn will be towards the end of September.

The investigation is still open

In the meantime, Judge María Eugenia Capuchetti and Prosecutor Carlos Rivoloin charge of the investigation entitled aggravated attempted murdertook this Friday the first statements to Kirchner and a series of witnesses, police officers and custodians.

The detainee, named Fernando André Sabag Montiel, 35, refused to answer questions investigated by the judge and the prosecutor in the case, according to judicial sources cited by the local press. He was previously subjected to psychological tests that determined that he is “situated in time and space” and that therefore is chargeable.

The subject is from Brazilian nationality, Argentine mother and Chilean father. He has lived in Argentina since 1993. He had been arrested on March 17, 2021 for carrying a knife, but later the case was closed. The man carries a Nazi symbol tattooed on the elbow.

To attack the vice president, she slipped in among the militants who every night since her sentence was requested wait for her at the door of her house to support her. Kirchner’s own supporters subdued the attacker who placed a Bersa 380 pistol a few centimeters from his face.

Kirchner, 69, as loved by his followers within Peronism as detested by opposition sectors, still has great influence and power in Argentina, seven years after leaving the presidency and one before the 2023 elections, about which he has not yet shown his intentions.

(With AFP and local media)