Buenos Aires It was disturbing videos that appeared on South American networks and international agencies on Thursday evening: from several perspectives you can see how someone in a crowd aims a pistol at Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s head, and clicks the trigger – but it does does not get a shot. The sound of the gun falling on the asphalt can also be clearly heard. Then the suspected assassin tries to disappear into the crowd.
But the man is quickly caught. It is said to be a 35-year-old Brazilian with a criminal record for possession of weapons who works as a delivery service employee in Buenos Aires. The Bersa automatic weapon was loaded with five cartridges, officials said.
President Alberto Fernández said in a nationwide speech that evening that the attempted assassination of Kirchner would jeopardize democratic coexistence and threaten social peace. He declared Friday a national holiday so that Argentines could demonstrate for peace and democracy.
Argentina’s history is marked by political violence. However, there has not been an assassination attempt on a president since the country’s return to democracy in 1983.
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In a short time, the entire Argentine political class expressed its solidarity with Kirchner. This is amazing: the former president is the most controversial politician in the country.
Argentina’s President speaks of an assassination attempt on Kirchner
In addition to her position as Vice President, the 69-year-old lawyer also chairs the Senate. This makes her the most powerful political figure in Argentine politics for the past two decades. After her late husband Néstor Kirchner, who ruled as president from 2003 to 2007, she succeeded him twice from 2007 to 2015. Since 2019 she has been Vice-President in Fernández’s government.
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For more than a year, however, she has increasingly distanced herself from the government and is now vehemently critical of the president. Above all, she rejects his economic program. The program was drawn up in accordance with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in order to avoid a renewed debt crisis in Argentina. In the middle of the year, the president changed three economics ministers, apparently under pressure from Kirchner.
Kirchner has been in the center of public attention in Argentina since the public prosecutor’s office demanded twelve years in prison and a lifelong ban from public office a week ago. The politician is said to have been deeply involved in corruption during her reign and that of her husband. She is also said to have defrauded the state of around one billion dollars.
However, the likelihood that Kirchner will be convicted of these allegations is low: she has immunity as a senator, which the Supreme Court would have to lift. That’s unlikely.
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Meanwhile, Kirchner cleverly uses the prosecutor’s charges to present himself as a victim of the judiciary. Since the allegations became known, opponents and fans of the ex-president have been gathering in front of Kirchner’s apartment in the upper-class district of Recoleta in the capital Buenos Aires. There were chaotic scenes at times. The police intervened with tear gas and water cannons to divide the political camps.
Kirchner is said to have been the leader of a criminal organization and brought the state the equivalent of around one billion euros.
(Photo: dpa)
In the meantime, however, their supporters are the majority there. It is with obvious satisfaction that Kirchner enjoys walking through the crowds of her supporters, who worship her almost religiously, in the mornings and evenings. She speaks of them as “her children.”
It is foreseeable that political solidarity with Kirchner will not last long. Despite her criticism of the government, she is still part of the cabinet – and President Fernández is so weakened that many observers in Buenos Aires doubt he can last the remaining year and a half until the next elections in October 2023.
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Argentina is headed for hyperinflation. Inflation is currently 70 percent, towards the end of the year the investment banks are expecting inflation to be 90 percent – or more. This is the first time that Argentina has overtaken Venezuela as the country with one of the highest inflation rates in Latin America. 40 percent of the population are considered poor. Large sections of the middle class fear social decline.
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At the same time, the foreign exchange reserves are almost completely used up. The government has less than around one billion dollars available to pay for essential imports such as medicines or energy. The new economy minister, Sergio Massa, wants to travel to Washington next week to get a new loan for Argentina from the IMF. However, given the strong criticism of the fund by the Vice President and her supporters, commitments are unlikely.
Argentina faces economic and political turmoil. The attempted assassination is likely to add to the charged political climate.
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