Argentina: Cristina Fernández testifies in the trial for the attempted murder against her and insists on political links behind it

Former Argentine President Cristina Fernández on Wednesday called on the courts to find the “ideologues and financiers” of the failed attack he suffered in 2022, when testifying in the trial against three defendants whom he considered to be mere “material authors.”

“We have the perpetrators sitting in the dock, but not the ideologues and financiers,” Fernandez told the court, where he came face to face with the attacker, his ex-partner and an employer of both as street candy sellers.

Fernández, who was vice president at the time of the attack, answered questions from the prosecution and the lawyers of the parties for just over an hour.

The former president (2007-2015) broke down when she talked about how the attack affected her daily life and that of her family.

With a rosary in her hands, she said that after the incident her little granddaughter was “afraid to leave her room because she was afraid that they would kill her” and so she had to receive psychological treatment.

“A family that suffers this has consequences,” he stressed.

A group of supporters followed the former president’s appearance in the federal courts of the Argentine capital from the street.

In his responses he also considered that in the months prior to the attack there was a “crescendo of violence” against him.

“There was a lot of violence and curiously, those who came to my door to insult me ​​disappeared after the attack.”stressed Fernández, who at that time was being tried in a corruption case during her previous terms.

The main suspect in the attack is Fernando Sabag Montiel (37 years old), who pulled the trigger on Kirchner, without it firing; his ex-partner Brenda Uliarte, accused as co-author; and Nicolás Carrizo, an employer of both, accused as “planner.”

Fernandez insists on political links to attack against him

The former president mentioned the deputy of the Republican Proposal party (PRO, center-right), founded by former president Mauricio Macri (2015-2019), Gerardo Milman and his connection with the far-right group Revolución Federal, which carried out several demonstrations of hatred against him.

“Deputy Gerardo Milman presented a project criticizing the vice-presidential guard. ‘Let’s not let someone try to kill her,’ said the document that was later removed. We later learned that this person was heard saying that ‘when they kill her, I’ll be on the coast,'” said Fernández.

The latter was allegedly said by Milman during an informal conversation in a café, which was overheard and reported by an advisor to the Peronist Frente de Todos.

It would be very naive of me to say that the people sitting in front of me are the ones who came up with this.

The former president insisted, once again, on the lack of investigation into alleged “instigators” and “financiers” of the attack on her, who, according to her, would be protected by the Federal Justice.

“It would be very naive of me to say that the people sitting in front of me are the ones who came up with this idea,” said Fernandez in a room full of Kirchnerist leaders and activists who had come to give her their support.

The former president referred to the three defendants: Fernando Sabag Montiel, who admitted in June to having tried to shoot the former president for being “corrupt”; Brenda Uliarte, Montiel’s girlfriend and accused as co-author, and Nicolás Carrizo, accused as a secondary participant in the failed assassination attempt.

Those accused of the attempted murder of Cristina Fernández

The trial for the attack carried out when Fernández was vice president began on June 26 and There are three defendants: Sabag Montiel, who admitted in June to having tried to shoot the former president for being “corrupt”; Uliarte, Montiel’s girlfriend and accused as co-author; and Carrizo, accused as a secondary participant in the failed murder attempt.

Carrizo, leader of the ‘flakes gang’ – so called because they were selling cotton candy near Fernández’s home when the attack took place – declared last month that Sabag Montiel was solely responsible for the attempted assassination and denied having participated in its planning.

That same day, Uliarte, contrary to her lawyer’s strategy, decided to testify, but changed her mind after the first questions of the investigation, during which she claimed to be “a participant and concealer,” although she later said she did not feel “in a position” to continue speaking.

“Tomorrow I will go to testify at the oral trial against the perpetrators of the attempted murder of me carried out on September 1, 2022,” Fernández wrote on Tuesday on his account on the social network X, where he also asked: “About the intellectual authors and the financiers?… Fine, thank you… They sleep protected by Comodoro Py.”

The rhetorical question marks a new reference by Fernández to the theory that those accused of the attempted murder responded to undercover masterminds.

Montiel, a Brazilian citizen who was 35 years old at the time of the attack, approached the then vice president as she greeted a group of supporters.

According to the images captured by television cameras, Montiel tried to shoot Fernández, but the bullet did not leave the barrel of the weapon.

Fernandez was then placed under guard by members of her security forces while her supporters captured Montiel and handed him over to the police.