Argentina: Attacker claims at trial that attack on Kirchner was “for the good of society”

On Wednesday, N.1 accused that the attempted attack in 2022 against Cristina Kirchner, then Vice President of Argentina, was an “act of justice” for the “good of society” and against “corrupt women”. During the interrogation, he handled with surprising calmness the act that could have led to a “civil war”. Fernando Sabag Montiel asserted that it was “an act of justice and not one from which I tried to gain financial benefits”, and he refuted the hypothesis of a vast conspiracy repeatedly put forward by the Kirchner camp, according to which it was authorized or financed.

At the same time, relaxed, talkative and cooperating with the court at length, he spoke bluntly about the “personal motive” for the attack, “a moral connotation (…) of having to do more for the public good than ‘doing something else'”. Cristina Kirchner, he said, “is corrupt, steals and endangers society”. However, he denied strictly “political” motives. “Above all, I don’t care about politics, the reason I launched the attack was not the opposition to Kirchnerism (…) It was a personal aim, not in the interests of any political sector”, he said.

Later, in response to a question, he even clarified that in discussions with friends, he confirmed that the full political rise of the ultra-liberal Javier Milei, who won the presidency in December 2023, “did not like it very much”. A lot. Sabag Montiel, 37, an occasional VTC driver, is one of the three main defendants in the attack on September 1, 2022 on the former head of state (2007-2015) and then vice-president.

Want to sever ties with co-defendants

One night, he mixed with a small group of sympathizers in front of Cristina Kirchner’s home in Buenos Aires and pointed a pistol “less than a meter” to her head. Miraculously, the loaded gun did not fire and the bullet did not go off. He was subdued on the spot. The attack was the worst act of political violence since the restoration of democracy 40 years ago and has traumatized Argentina.

The next day, emotional demonstrations in support of Cristina Kirchner (including the monster in Buenos Aires) gathered tens of thousands of people in several cities. “We have just experienced a miracle,” mused historian Sergio Vischniewski, who is convinced that if the shooting had killed people, the country “would have fallen into a spiral of violence” that would have led to “hell.”

In court, Sabag Montiel seemed to want to take full responsibility for the act, along with his co-defendant, his ex-girlfriend Brenda Uliarte, 25, convicted as an accomplice, and friend Nicolas Carrizo, 29, as an accomplice. The prosecution relied on email exchanges to establish the plan between them. For Sabag Montiel, Carrizo did not know “what I was going to do”. Uriarte’s “commitment” was less. “I wanted to kill Cristina, she wanted her dead”, being a “bystander”. The young woman was at the scene that night and was not arrested until three days later.

The trial is expected to last six months to a year.

One of the questions surrounding the attack is the degree and scale of the planning: was it a simple combination of three hated losers, or a darker conspiracy as Cristina Kirchner suspected, pointing out, according to her, “certain” private financing to the government of her liberal successor, Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).

She also tried to have the investigating judge recuse himself, but in vain, and in the end the judge did not retain “objective factors” that hinted at political dominance. Like strange and ominous statements made by right-wing representatives or a small far-right organization, the Revolutionary Federation, with which Uriarte had very brief contact. Since his arrest, Sabbag Montiel has insisted that he “acted alone.” Expert reports call his personality “narcissistic” and his language “extravagant.” As his 2.5-hour testimony shows, it was at least lengthy and sometimes even bordered on chaos.

“If I had succeeded, I would have been more remorseful,” he declared, exploring his own remorse. At the same time recognizing that the attack could have led to “civil war”. But “sometimes it is better that things do not happen…” The trial was postponed until July 3. It is not expected to last for weeks, as hearings are scheduled weekly and are expected to last from six months to a year, with more than 270 witnesses expected: investigators, security agents, friends of the accused and Cristina Kirchner herself.

AFP

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