Argentina’s Cristina Kirchner faces would-be assassin in court

BUENOS AIRES – Argentine former president Cristina Kirchner testified on Aug 14 in the trial of three people charged with an attempt to kill her in 2022, saying the planners and financiers of the attack had yet to be found.

The three in the dock, said Kirchner, were merely the executors of the plan.

“We have the material authors but not the ideologues and financiers,” Kirchner, 71, said as she came face to face with 37-year-old Fernando Sabag Montiel, who is accused of having pointed a gun at her head at point-blank range and pulling the trigger twice. The gun misfired.

The other two accused are Montiel’s former partner, Brenda Uliarte, 25, charged as a co-conspirator, and Nicolas Carrizo, 29, their former employer and alleged accomplice.

Clutching a rosary, Kirchner broke down as she recounted the effects on her family of

the attack that occurred when she was vice-president

after having served two terms as president.

Her young granddaughter, she said, refused to leave her room “because she was afraid of being killed” and had to receive psychological treatment.

“A family that endures this kind of thing suffers consequences,” she testified.

She answered questions from the prosecution and defence lawyers for just over an hour.

Sabag Montiel told the court in June his was “an act of justice” for “the social good”.

“Kirchner is corrupt, she steals and harms society,” he testified.

The assassination attempt, caught on video, took place as Kirchner mingled with a crowd that had gathered outside her home on Sept 1, 2022, to show support as she was on trial for fraud.

Sabag Montiel was caught by her followers and handed over to police.

The dramatic incident drew global condemnation.

Kirchner alleges a wider political plot privately financed by her opponents.

Three months after the attack, she was

sentenced to six years in jail for corruption

in a trial she said was a political witch hunt. She is appealing against the verdict.

She came to prominence as part of the ultimate political power couple – she and her late husband Nestor Kirchner served a collective 12 years in the Casa Rosada, the pink presidential palace.

She served as vice-president from 2019 to 2023 and is a vocal opponent of incumbent President Javier Milei. AFP