Man tried to shoot Argentina’s vice-president, but gun didn’t fire
- Incident took place outside Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner’s Buenos Aires home
- Argentina government officials were quick to describe the incident as an assassination attempt
A man was detained after he aimed a handgun at point-blank range toward Argentina’s politically powerful Vice-President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and President Alberto Fernandez said the assassination attempt failed because the gun did not fire.
“A man pointed a firearm at her head and pulled the trigger,” the president said in a national broadcast.
He called it “the most serious incident since we recovered democracy” in 1983 and urged political leaders, and society at large, to repudiate the incident.
Supporters of the vice-president have been gathering in the streets surrounding her home since last week, when a prosecutor called for a 12-year sentence for Kirchner as well as a lifelong prohibition in holding public office as part of a case involving alleged corruption in public works during her 2007-2015 presidency.
Kirchner, who is not related to the current president, has denied all charges.
The president spoke shortly after video from the scene broadcast on local television channels showed Kirchner exiting her vehicle surrounded by supporters outside her home when a man could be seen extending his hand with what looked like a pistol.