Argentina’s Vice-President narrowly survived an assassination attempt at point-blank range thanks to an apparent cartridge misfire. The incident took place Thursday evening when Vice President of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner emerged from her car at her residence. She began to shake hands with admirers and supporters.
Her security detail missed not only any pre-violence indicators by the assassin, but also the gun as he drew and pointed it. The would-be killer put it in her face and pulled the trigger…and nothing happened.
Media accounts say it was a five-shot revolver although the screen captures suggest it was a semi-auto pistol. Either way, where security failed, fate interceded and saved the VP.
Here’s the video . . .
🚨🚨Miren este video!!!!
El lunes en #Argenzuela hablamos de la seguridad de @CFKArgentina. Mostramos los maletines de kevlar para cubrirla de un atentado. Nos llamaron de su entorno. Nos desmintieron. Nos putearon un poquito. Lo vimos nosotros y no ellos? Terrible falla. pic.twitter.com/OGVWVzKH8c— JORGE RIAL (@rialjorge) September 2, 2022
Here’s Reuters’ confused account (the assassin never “fired” the gun) . . .
Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner escaped unharmed on Thursday after a man fired a loaded gun at her that failed to go off inches from her head.
The attack, which the economy minister called an assassination attempt, comes at a time of acute political and social frictions inside Argentina.
It happened as Fernandez de Kirchner stepped out of a car outside her Buenos Aires home, where hundreds of supporters had gathered. Video footage showed a man holding a pistol next to her head.
President Alberto Fernandez said the gun had been loaded with five bullets.
“This is the most serious event we have gone through since Argentina returned to democracy,” he said in a televised address, referring to the 1983 end of military rule.
From Yahoo News . . .
On Thursday, President Alberto Fernandez confirmed in a televised address that a man attempted to kill the vice-president while she was surrounded by hoardes of supporters outside her Buenos Aires home.
“A man pointed a firearm at her head and pulled the trigger. Cristina is still alive because – for some reason we can’t technically confirm at this moment – the weapon, which was armed with five bullets, did not shoot although the trigger was pulled,” he explained, before adding: “We must eradicate hate and violence from our media and political discourse.”
As for Kirchner’s “security” detail . . .
Jorge Vidal, a public security expert who used to work for the Buenos Aires city government, said the security response to the incident was “far from being a professional performance.” …
“We noticed that there were fewer police officers. I saw two from the federal (police). It was full of people,” [Kirchner supporter Silvana] Venegas said.
Javier, the young witness, declared in court that he and other supporters detained the suspect, not the police.
“I grab him, and also others,” he said.
It seems Argentina’s security forces seem to have some work to do in terms of personal protection protocols.