(Buenos Aires) The failed 2022 attack on then-Argentine Vice President Cristina Kirchner was “an act of justice,” for “the good of society,” targeting a person “corrupt, who steals and harms society,” the main defendant proclaimed on Wednesday, on the first day of the trial.
It was “an act of justice and not an act in which I tried to benefit financially,” said Fernando Sabag Montiel, rejecting the hypothesis that he was mandated or financed, and showing no remorse.
Calm, talkative, and collaborating in detail with the court, he spoke bluntly of a “personal motivation” for the attack, “a deeper ethical connotation, having to do more with the general interest than anything else.”
Later, in response to a question, he even detailed having, during discussions with friends including his co-accused and ex-partner, confided that “he did not like much” the ultraliberal Javier Milei, then in full political rise, until the presidency in December 2023.
Sabag Montiel, 37, is the main one of three accused for the failed attack on September 1, 2022 against the former head of state, and then vice-president, Cristina Kirchner.
He had pointed a gun “less than a meter” from Ms. Kirchner’s head, but miraculously the loaded gun had not been triggered and the shot had not fired. He was immediately subdued and arrested.
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.
“We have just experienced a miracle,” historian Sergio Wischnevsky observed at the time, convinced that if the shot had killed, the country “would have entered a spiral of violence” that would have led it “to hell.” .
In his statements to the court on Wednesday afternoon, Sabag Montiel appeared to want to take responsibility for the act alone and dissociate his co-defendants, his ex-girlfriend Brenda Uliarte, 25, and a friend, Nicolas Carrizo, 29.
For Sabag Montiel, Carrizo was not aware “of what I was going to do”. And he underlined his difference “in conviction” with Brenda: “I wanted to kill Cristina, and she [Uliarte] wanted her to die”.
She had pointed to private funding “identified”, according to her, to the government of her liberal successor Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
Ms. Kirchner had tried in vain to have the investigating judge recused, who in the end 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.
Sabag Montiel, in his statements since his arrest, has always maintained that he “acted alone”. Expert reports have described him as a “narcissistic” personality with “extravagant” speech.
The attack trial, with one hearing day per week, is expected to last between six months and a year, with more than 270 witnesses expected: investigators, security agents, friends of the accused, and Ms. Kirchner itself, but a priori not for several weeks.
