BUENOS AIRES (AP) _ A man was arrested Thursday when he pointed a firearm at Argentine Vice President and former president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner outside her home in Buenos Aires.
“A person who is indicated by those who were close to him that he had a weapon is detained by custody personnel. They take him away, the weapon is found and now it has to be analyzed,” Security Minister Aníbal told the C5N network. Fernandez.
According to images broadcast by Public Television, a man with a chinstrap and a wool cap points a pistol at the 69-year-old vice president and fired the trigger just as she got out of a car to greet supporters who were waiting for her in front of her home in the capital. Argentina.
The suspect was reduced by Fernández de Kirchner’s guards and arrested. His identity was not disclosed. It is also not yet known if the weapon is real or not.
However, the highest government authorities described the incident as an assassination attempt.
“When hate and violence prevail over the debate of ideas, they destroy societies and generate situations like today’s: an assassination attempt,” said Economy Minister Sergio Massa.
For a week, the supporters of the vice president have been watching in front of the apartment building where she lives to give her their support after a prosecutor asked for a 12-year sentence and lifelong disqualification from holding public office in an oral trial for irregularities in the tender for public works during her two terms (2007-2015), charges she denies.
Leaving her apartment each noon before moving to the Senate, the vice president greets her supporters and signs them for autographs. On her return at night she repeats the same routine.
As opposition leaders condemned the attempted attack.
“I categorically condemn and repudiate the attack against the vice president,” said Mario Negri, president of the Radical Civic Union bloc of deputies. “Justice must clarify the fact immediately. What has just happened is very serious. Democracy demands peace. No to violence.”
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