“We were centimetres from civil war”: attempted murder of VP Kirchner rocks Argentina
“We were centimetres from civil war”: attempted murder of VP Kirchner rocks Argentina
Cristina has been in the midst of a debate about corruption and judicial and media bias that has stoked fury on both sides of the political divide
Good evening pirates,
It’s hard to feel nautical today. Amy has been running on coffee, alfajores and very little sleep, while the rest of the crew has been glued to the screen, after a gunman attempted to shoot Argentina’s vice president in the face. It feels like a new low for democracy, and we’re talking about a country that is intimately and painfully familiar with living in dictatorship.
Without further ado, here’s our dispatch on what’s going on.
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, current vice president and two-term former president of Argentina, suffered an assassination attempt near her home, in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta, at around 9pm on September 1.
The attack was condemned by the country’s political left and right alike. Coming as it did during a hotly controversial corruption trial against her, it sparked soul-searching about the line between critical speech and verbal violence.
Her assailant Fernando Sabag Montiel, a 35-year-old Brazilian national who has been in the country since the early 90s, slipped through a crowd of her supporters and brandished the weapon just inches from the vice president’s face. In a video you can see and hear him attempting to fire the weapon. According to official information, the weapon was a 38-caliber Bersa pistol and had five bullets inside, although none were in the firing chamber. Sabag Montiel was immediately detained by the police.
He had previously been arrested in March 2021 for illegally carrying weapons. Social media photos show that he had tattoos of symbols associated with neonazism, including the black sun and the iron cross. It is not yet known whether he acted alone.
In a speech just after midnight, Argentine President Alberto Fernández declared Friday a national holiday. “We are facing an event that has an extreme institutional and inhuman gravity,” he said. “The vice president has been attacked and social peace has been adversely affected. It is necessary to banish violence and hatred from political and media discourse”.
On Friday, Cristina’s supporters and pro-democracy protesters marched down the central Avenida de Mayo to the president’s offices on Plaza de Mayo.
“What happened yesterday was the final straw,” said Analia, a 46-year-old construction worker who declined to give her last name. “We democrats believe in a great, just and inclusive homeland for everyone. We believe in democracy, so we became passive, tolerating over a decade of insult and injury, and defamation became a custom.”
Analia was waving a placard reading “Justice complicit”. She described the proceedings against Fernández de Kirchner as “lawfare”, which she called a culture in which it is enough to merely accuse someone of a crime for them to be socially and politically outcast.
Asked why so many people love Cristina, Analia responded: “It’s really easy when you see how much people could buy with their dignified salaries.” She didn’t vote for Cristina’s husband and predecessor in the presidency, Néstoy Kirchner, nor for Cristina first time round, but changed her mind after she saw Argentina’s social progress, she said.
Leading figures from Argentina’s opposition coalition, Juntos por el Cambio (Together for Change), including former president Mauricio Macri and Buenos Aires city governor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, condemned the attack. From the Argentine Congress, deputies and senators from the ruling coalition and the opposition appeared together in a message condemning the event and calling for peace.
Internationally, Presidents Gabriel Boric (Chile), Gustavo Petro (Colombia), Luis Arce (Bolivia), Luis Lacalle Pou (Uruguay), Guillermo Lasso (Ecuador) and Pedro Castillo (Peru) offered condolences and support. Pope Francis, who is from Argentina, and influential former Latin American presidents including Brazil’s Lula Da Silva, Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Ecuador’s Rafael Correa also released statements. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken "strongly" condemned the would-be magnicide. “We are with the Argentine government and people in rejecting violence and hatred,” he remarked.
The debate has prompted a profound debate about the line between critical discourse and hate speech, with Argentina’s right-wing press being excoriated online. Some social media users blamed the press directly for the attack against Kirchner and are calling for a boycott of certain pundits.
Meanwhile on Avenida de Mayo, Analia was relieved that the gun didn’t go off. “Yesterday we were centimetres from a civil war,” she said.
The Big Headlines in Latam
Chile prepares to vote on a new Constitution. On Sunday, 15 million Chileans vote whether to approve or reject their new Magna Carta, which was prepared by a Constituent Convention formed in 2020, after the mass protests. The current text was created during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet in 1980.
According to the Chilean newspaper La Tercera, the campaign for approval "had a massive campaign closing event" on Libertador Avenue, in Santiago, attended by some 500,000 people. Meanwhile, the campaign in favor of rejecting the new Constitution was held in a theater in the capital, "where between 300 and 400 people gathered."
Last Sunday, a court in Peru ordered preventive detention for 30 months against Yenifer Paredes, sister-in-law of President Pedro Castillo, for her alleged link to money laundering and related organization crimes that also involve the current president. At the moment, Castillo faces six tax investigations with his wife Lilia Paredes, in which several of his close collaborators and relatives are involved, including the first lady's sister. According to the prosecution, Yenifer Paredes, 26, would have helped the owner of a company obtain public works contracts despite lacking the financial resources and experience to carry them out.
What we’re writing/filming:
Daniela wrote this piece for El Pais examining how legalization of medicinal marijuana in Colombia led to domination of the field by multinational companies, almost all of which are rapidly losing money due to restrictions on both domestic consumption and exports.
Amy shot some footage and gave an interview to TalkTV about the attempt on Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s life. Our favourite bit is the cameo by her finger, see if you can spot it.
She also co-wrote this piece about today’s march for The Guardian
What we’re reading:
This Guardian story about how a graphic novel's bold vision for Bolivia's up-and-coming city of El Alto
Spanish word of the week:
Parchar: Colombian slang for “to chill”, “to hang out”, to “vibe”. Estoy parchando con los homies
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, actual vicepresidenta y dos veces presidenta de Argentina, sufrió un intento de asesinato en los alrededores de su domicilio, en el barrio porteño de Recoleta, la noche del 1 de septiembre. La tentativa de magnicidio ocurrió cerca de las 21 horas y fue perpetrada por el ciudadano brasileño Fernando Sabag Montiel, de 35 años, quien fue detenido por la policía federal. En un video se puede observar y escuchar cómo el implicado gatilló el arma, pero no ocurrió ningún disparo. Según información oficial, el arma era una pistola Bersa de calibre 38 y tenía cinco balas en su interior, aunque ninguna de estas en la recámara de disparo. Sabag Montiel había sido detenido en marzo del 2021 por portación ilegal de armas.
El presidente argentino Alberto Fernández ofreció un mensaje cerca de la medianoche y declaró feriado nacional para el viernes 3 de septiembre. En su alocución, manifestó: “Estamos ante un hecho que tiene una gravedad institucional e inhumana extrema. Se ha atentado con la vicepresidenta y la paz social se ha visto alterada. Es necesario desterrar la violencia y el odio del discurso político y mediático”.
Distintas figuras de la política argentina, latinoamericana y mundial han expresado su solidaridad a Cristina Fernández de Kirchner y un enérgico rechazo por el intento de magnicidio. A nivel interno, destacaron los mensajes de los líderes del partido opositor Juntos Por el Cambio, como el expresidente Mauricio Macri y el gobernador de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. Desde el Congreso argentino, diputados y senadores del oficialismo y la oposición aparecieron juntos en un mensaje de rechazo al ataque.
Desde la arena internacional, se pronunciaron los presidentes Gabriel Boric (Chile), Gustavo Petro (Colombia), Luis Arce (Bolivia), Luis Lacalle Pou (Uruguay), Guillermo Lasso (Ecuador) y Pedro Castillo (Perú). También se manifestaron el Papa Francisco y líderes regionales como Lula Da Silva, Evo Morales, Rafael Correa, entre otros.El secretario de Estado de Estados Unidos, Antony Blinken, condenó “enérgicamente” el intento de asesinato. “Estamos con el gobierno y el pueblo argentino en el rechazo a la violencia y el odio”, remarcó.
Chile se prepara para votar una nueva Constitución. El domingo se realizarán los comicios para que los más de 15 millones de chilenos voten si se aprueba o se rechaza su nueva Carta Magna, que fue elaborada por una Convención Constituyente formada en 2020, tras el estallido social ocurrido en dicho país. El texto actual fue creado durante la dictadura de Augusto Pinochet en 1980.
Según el diario chileno La Tercera, el cierre de campaña por la aprobación “tuvo un multitudinario cierre” en la avenida Libertador, en Santiago, al que asistieron unos 500 mil asistentes. En tanto, la campaña a favor del rechazo a la nueva Constitución se realizó en un teatro de la capital, “donde se congregaron entre 300 y 400 personas”.
El domingo pasado,un juzgado de Perú ordenó la prisión preventiva por 30 meses contra Yenifer Paredes, cuñada del presidente Pedro Castillo, por su presunta vinculación con delitos de lavado de activos y organización vinculados que vienen siendo investigados por la fiscalía y que también involucran al actual mandatario. Al momento, Castillo afronta junto a su esposa Lilia Paredes seis investigaciones fiscales, en las que están involucrados varios de sus colaboradores cercanos y familiares, entre ellos la hermana de la primera dama. Según la fiscalía, Yenifer Paredes, de 26 años, habría ayudado al propietario de una empresa a obtener contratos de obras públicas pese a carecer de los recursos económicos y la experiencia para llevarlas a cabo.