Messages of shock and solidarity poured in from around the world on Friday after a man tried to shoot dead Argentine Vice President Cristina Kirchner in a videotaped attack.
Domestic political and labor unions called mass demonstrations across the country to denounce Thursday’s attack on Kircher, who survived because the pistol pointed at her face at point-blank range did not explode.
While police investigated whether the suspect, a Brazilian, acted alone, the Pope, Latin American leaders and the UN legal office in Geneva sent messages of support.
The detained man has been identified as 35-year-old Fernando Andre Sabag Montiel.
Footage of the incident showed a man pointing a pistol at 69-year-old Kirchner, who was the country’s head of state from 2007 to 2015 and is now facing corruption charges.
The incident happened outside Kirchner’s home in Buenos Aires’ upscale Recoleta neighborhood. The crime scene was cordoned off by police on Friday, and a handful of Kirchner supporters gathered nearby.
“I saw this arm come over my shoulder with a gun behind me and with the people around me it was muffled,” a supporter, who did not give his name, told AFP.
Another, who gave only her first name Teresa, said: “We have been waiting for our beloved Cristina. And she just came down to greet everyone, like she does every night to greet the people. And suddenly there was a commotion, and it was this guy who pointed (a gun) at her.
“They grabbed him right next to him, they chased him through here and I have his face in my memory.”
President Alberto Fernandez announced to the nation that “Cristina remains alive because, for a reason not yet technically confirmed, the five-ball gun did not fire, even though the trigger was pulled.”
He said it was the “most serious event since democracy was restored” in 1983.
The President declared Friday a public holiday.
– “Solidarity” –
“We have just experienced one of the worst episodes in our history with the attempted assassination of Cristina Kirchner,” tweeted Axel Kicillof, Governor of Buenos Aires Province.
Pope Francis, himself a former Archbishop of Buenos Aires, sent Kirchner a telegram expressing “solidarity” and praying that “social harmony and respect for democratic values ??always prevail,” according to the Vatican.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez expressed “unequivocal condemnation of this assassination” and his support for Kirchner and the Argentine people.
“Hate and violence will never defeat democracy,” he tweeted.
Latin American politicians also expressed their support, including messages from Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, Chilean President Gabriel Boric and Bolivian President Luis Arce.
Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s former president now embroiled in a bitter election campaign, also called Kirchner’s attacker “a fascist criminal who doesn’t know how to respect differences and diversity.”
Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani said the UN human rights office was “shocked” by the incident.
“We will follow the situation closely,” Shamdasani told reporters in Geneva.
Inside the country, the opposition group Together for Change condemned the attempted attack and called for a full investigation.
“My absolute rejection of the attack on Cristina Kirchner, who fortunately remained unharmed,” tweeted opposition leader Mauricio Macri, who became president after Kirchner.
“This very serious act requires an immediate and thorough investigation by prosecutors and security forces.”
The ruling Front of All (centre-left Peronist) coalition called for a march to the central Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires “to defend democracy”.
– process –
Kirchner, a trained lawyer who succeeded her late husband Nestor Kirchner as president, is accused of fraudulently awarding public works contracts in her political stronghold Patagonia.
Government prosecutors have accused her of defrauding the state of an estimated $1 billion and are seeking a 12-year prison sentence and a life ban from politics.
Hundreds of activists have gathered outside her home in recent days to protest the claims.
“Nothing, absolutely nothing, that they said has been proven,” Kirchner said last week.
The verdict in her case is expected by the end of the year.
She is President of the country’s Senate and enjoys parliamentary immunity, which gives her some legal protection.
Even if convicted, she would not go to jail unless her sentence is upheld by the country’s Supreme Court or she loses her Senate seat in the next election in late 2023.
