The vice-president of Argentina narrowly escaped being shot dead when the gunman’s weapon jammed as he fired at her.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was greeting supporters outside her home when a man emerged from the crowd and pointed a handgun in her face.
Five bullets were loaded in the gun, according to President Alberto Fernandez, but it did not discharge when it was triggered.
Ms. de Kirchner was on her way home from court as she is currently facing charges of corruption. She denies the accusations.
Police reported that the shooter, who was named by local media as a 35-year-old Brazilian man, had been arrested and in custody. They are trying to find a motive for the attack.
Addressing the nation late on Thursday night, Mr Fernandez said: “Cristina remains alive because, for a reason not yet technically confirmed, the gun, which contained five bullets, did not fire.”
The attempt on Ms. de Kirchner was one of the “most serious” incidents since the nation returned to democracy in 1983, he continued, condemning the offender and the attack.
“We can disagree, we can have deep disagreements, but hate speech cannot take place because it breeds violence and there is no chance of violence coexisting with democracy,” Mr Fernandez said.
In order to give Argentines time to “assert themselves in defence of life, democracy, and in solidarity with our vice president,” he also declared a national holiday on Friday.
A video that was shared on the local media showed the man holding a gun inches from her head and attempted to fire. She then bows her head, but no shots were fired.
El video del arma contra @CFKArgentina pic.twitter.com/8j1xpMnPoe
— Lautaro Maislin (@LautaroMaislin) September 2, 2022
In another video posted on social media, people in the crowd appear to try to block Ms de Kirchner from the suspected gunman.
Argentina’s economy minister, Sergio Massa, called the attempted shooting an “attempted assassination”.
“When hate and violence prevail over debate, societies are destroyed and situations like these arise: attempted assassination,” he said in a tweet.
A police spokesperson earlier told Reuters news agency that a weapon was found a few metres from the scene after the man had been arrested.
While the trial is ongoing, hundreds of demonstrators have congregated outside the 69-year-residence old’s in the capital in recent days.
During her time as president of Argentina from 2007 to 2015, Ms. de Kirchner is charged of cheating the government and allocating public works contracts in her Patagonia region fraudulently.
Prosecutors have requested that the former president receive a lifelong ban from politics and a 12-year prison sentence if found guilty at trial.
Ms. de Kirchner, however, has parliamentary immunity because she is the president of the Senate. Unless her sentence was upheld by the nation’s Supreme Court or she lost her Senate seat in the next elections at the end of 2023, she would not be put in prison.
After leaving office as president, Ms. Kirchner was involved in multiple other corruption cases. It will likely take several months before the trial’s verdict is known.
