Officials in Argentina have arrested a third individual in connection with the attempted assassination of Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who escaped uninjured after a man pointed a gun at her outside her Buenos Aires house earlier this month. Despite squeezing the trigger, the gun did not fire, Argentine President Alberto Fernández stated later.
The most recent arrest in an ongoing investigation into the incident implies that a network of individuals may have been involved.
Agustina Daz, who appears to have at least been a close friend of the girlfriend of the man accused of attempting to shoot Fernández on September 1, was apprehended in the province of Buenos Aires on Monday, according to an official with knowledge of the matter. They talked anonymously because they were not permitted to comment on the probe.
Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández waves to fans and the press as she leaves her home on Friday, September 2, 2022, one day after a gun was pointed at her in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Argentina. Gustavo Garello / AP
Fernando Sabag Montiel, a Brazilian citizen aged 35, was arrested shortly after pointing a firearm at the vice president of Argentina outside her residence. He pushed the trigger twice, but the Bersa handgun, which was loaded with five bullets, did not fire.
Brenda Uliarte, his 23-year-old Argentine girlfriend who was purportedly present at the attempted shooting scene, was detained three days later.
Uliarte and Sabag Montiel are both accused of attempting to kill Fernández, the most influential politician in Argentina for the past fifteen years. She served as president for two terms from 2007 to 2015, being the second woman in the country’s history to do so after Isabel Perón and the first woman to win by election. She now has both fervent supporters and opponents.
Uliarte had Daz’s contact information saved in her phone as “love of my life,” and the two were in contact prior to and following the attempted assassination. According to the official, Daz helped Uliarte flee the site after the assassination attempt.
“With everything we’ve learned to date, Brenda’s function becomes more relevant,” added the official.
A sign picturing Vice President Cristina Fernández of Argentina hangs from a government building in the early hours of Friday, September 2, 2022, hours after a gun was pointed at her outside her Buenos Aires, Argentina, residence. Rodrigo Abd / AP
Since the 1990s, Sabag Montiel has been residing in Argentina. It appears from images posted to his now-defunct social networks that he has tattoos of Nazi emblems on his arms and hands.
Using security footage and cellphone communications, judicial investigators are attempting to recreate what transpired in the days preceding the attempted shooting and whether suspicious individuals were present near the vice president’s residence in the days preceding the incident.
The streets surrounding the vice president’s residence had been filled with supporters for days after a prosecutor requested a 12-year prison sentence and a lifetime ban on holding public office against Fernández, who faces corruption charges for allegedly using state funds to award public works contracts to a personal contact during her presidency. A conclusion is anticipated by the end of the year.
In the aftermath of the attempted shooting, she tweeted a photograph of the headline of a recent Clarn newspaper editorial that discussed both the attempted shooting and the corruption case’s ongoing court processes.
In the meantime, officials reported that Fernández also got a death threat through a 911 call.
The call was made from La Plata, around 70 kilometers south of Buenos Aires, and “is being probed,” according to Security Minister Anbal Fernández.