A man was arrested in Argentina after pointing a gun at Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner just as she greeted supporters outside her residence in Buenos Aires on Thursday night.
(Bloomberg) — A man was arrested in Argentina after pointing a gun at Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner just as she greeted supporters outside her residence in Buenos Aires on Thursday night.
Video footage of the scene circulating on social media showed a man coming just inches of the vice president and pulling the trigger of the gun, which did not fire. The man was arrested on the scene, according to local newspaper Clarin.
Crowds have gathered outside of Kirchner’s home in the Buenos Aires neighborhood of Recoleta since a federal prosecutor last week called for 12 years of prison and a lifetime ban on public office for the former president as part of a corruption trial.
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President Alberto Fernandez is expected to talk about the incident on national television, the newspaper said. Cases of political violence are extremely rare in Argentina since the return of democracy in the early 1980s and Thursday’s incident unified government and the opposition in denouncing the attack.
Economy Minister Sergio Massa tweeted soon after, calling the incident an “assassination attempt.” Former President Mauricio Macri also condemned the incident, asking the justice and security system to clarify the events around the situation as soon as possible.
Kirchner is accused of alleged fraud and leading an “illicit association” with other government officials and businessmen, whose companies received numerous public works contracts while she was Argentina’s president from 2007 to 2015.
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The vice president, who holds a high level immunity in her dual role as head of senate, has long denied any wrongdoing, lambasting the charges as politically motivated. She’s unlikely to face jail time in the near term.
(Updates with details from third paragraph.)
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