- A man has been arrested in Argentina for pointing a gun at Vice President Cristina Kirchner.
- Television pictures showed the man aiming the gun at Kirchner on Thursday when the left-wing politician and former head of state got out of a car in front of her apartment in the capital Buenos Aires.
- Numerous supporters had gathered in front of the building in the Recoleta district.
When the 69-year-old Vice President greeted her followers, the man suddenly pointed a gun at the head of the politician, who was involved in numerous corruption affairs. He didn’t fire a shot.
Legend:
There is only a short distance between the suspect’s gun and Kirchner. The man was arrested.
Reuters/TV PUBLICA ARGENTINA
Security Minister Aníbal Fernández later announced the arrest of the suspect. The investigations were ongoing. The fingerprints of the arrested person would be checked, as well as a possible motive.
Tensions around Kirchner
The incident came amid rising tensions surrounding Kirchner, who was the South American country’s president between 2007 and 2015. In a corruption trial last week, the public prosecutor’s office had demanded a twelve-year prison sentence against the vice president.
The process is about public tenders in Kirchner’s political home province of Santa Cruz in the south of the country. Kirchner described the allegations as politically motivated. After the sentence was demanded, both supporters and opponents of the widow of former President Néstor Kirchner, who died in 2010, gathered in front of the building where she lives.