(Buenos Aires) Delusion of a trio of politically hateful losers, or a vast conspiracy not yet elucidated? The trial for the miraculously failed attack in 2022 against Cristina Kirchner, a key figure in Argentine politics, on an evening when the country could have descended into violent chaos, opened on Wednesday in Buenos Aires.
The attack, experienced at the time as a shock, the most serious act of political violence since the return of democracy 40 years ago, “was planned with anticipation,” said the indictment read Wednesday by the registry, at the opening of the trial destined to last many months, and in the presence of the three accused, noted the AFP.
Cristina Kirchner, absent Wednesday, is not expected to testify for several weeks. At 71, and although in the background after 20 years as first lady, head of state, then vice-president, she remains influential behind the scenes within the opposition to ultraliberal President Javier Milei.
On September 1, 2022 around 9 p.m., a small crowd of supporters gathered like every evening for several weeks in front of the home of then Vice-President Cristina Kirchner to express their support for her, throughout her trial for fraud during her presidencies ( 2007-2015).
An arm reached between the shoulders, pointing a gun “less than a meter” from Ms. Kirchner’s head. By a miracle, the loaded weapon had not been triggered, the shot did not go off. The assailant was subdued immediately, then taken away by the police.
The next day, emotional demonstrations in support of Ms. Kirchner, including a monster in Buenos Aires, brought together tens of thousands of people in several cities across the country.
Peronists of course, but also many Argentinians far from being admirers of “CFK” (Cristina’s nickname), but aware “that a limit has been crossed” with the verbal violence of political polarization giving birth to physical violence.
“We have just experienced a miracle,” observed historian Sergio Wischnevsky, convinced that if the shot had killed, the country “would have entered a spiral of violence” that would have led it “to hell,” with possible protests and even revenge.
The three accused were present on Wednesday. The assailant, Fernando Sabag Montiel, 37, a somewhat lost precarious worker, occasional VTC driver, wearer of tattoos evoking neo-Nazi symbolism, harboring hatred towards Ms. Kirchner. And to the “narcissistic” personality and “extravagant” speech, according to the experts.
“They are sequestering me,” said a handwritten A4 sheet, handed out on Wednesday by Sabag Montiel, relaxed in his seat, for the photographers before the opening of the hearing.
A few meters from his then girlfriend, Brenda Uliarte, 25, charged as co-perpetrator, and who allegedly incited him to action, according to messages and chats between them read on Wednesday. “The idea is that you shoot him and escape,” she reportedly wrote shortly before.
And Nicolas Carrizo, 29, a friend charged with complicity, but who according to the prosecution “actively intervened” in the planning and could be reclassified as “co-perpetrator”. “I applaud (Sabag), he was one second away from becoming a national hero,” he wrote in a message.
The group – others were heard – occasionally sold sweets in the street: the “candy floss gang”, mocked the press.
More than 270 witnesses are expected: investigators, Ms. Kirchner’s security agents, friends of the accused, and the ex-president herself, at the trial which, at a rate of one day a week, should last “between six months and a year,” according to Ms. Kirchner’s lawyer, Me Marcos Aldazabal.
Not realizing at the time, but shaken afterwards, Cristina Kirchner said “to be alive thanks to God and the Virgin”.
Then will accuse a larger scheme, private financing “identified”, according to her, to the government of her liberal successor Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
In vain, she tried to challenge the investigating judge, who ultimately did not retain “objective elements” suggesting a political lead. For example, strangely premonitory remarks attributed to a right-wing MP, or a small ultra-right group, “Revolucion Federal”, to which Brenda Uliarte was – very briefly – close.
Polarized as always, political Argentina was divided in two: the skeptics denounced a “pseudo-attack” fabricated to “victimize” Ms. Kirchner, and the pro-Cristina were convinced of a dark plot.