A series of audio recordings in which members of an extremist far-right group talked openly about killing the vice-president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, have been presented in court by Argentina’s intelligence agency.
The recordings were made just four days before she survived an assassination attempt. A handgun pointed only inches away from her face failed to go off as she arrived at her apartment building on the evening of 1 September surrounded by supporters.
The assailant, 35-year-old Fernando Sabag Montiel, was quickly subdued and is now under arrest.
His girlfriend, Brenda Uliarte, is accused of instigating Sabag Montiel. “I am going to send Cristina to be killed,” Uliarte wrote to her 21-year-old friend Agustina Díaz a few days before the attack, according to messages found on her phone.
Argentina’s intelligence officials believe there may be a link between the conspirators and Federal Revolution, a far-right extremist group that openly discussed conducting a similar attack on 28 August.
Argentina’s intelligence chief, Agustín Rossi, said the attempted assassination was carried out exactly as the audio recordings, posted to Twitter on 28 August, described.
“A person infiltrated among the group of sympathisers who took advantage of the opportunity […] to carry out the criminal deed,” he told the press after the audio clips were presented to investigating judge María Eugenia Capuchetti. “There are right-wing extremist groups, the black sun tattooed on Sabag Montiel is a symbol used by many of these organizations,” Rossi added.
Sabag Montiel, Uliarte and Díaz, all now under arrest, have been identified in news camera footage outside the vice-president’s home, apparently scouting the area for at least nine days before the attack. Uliarte and Díaz have both been interrogated by the investigating court, with Uliarte likely being charged with attempted homicide. Confronted with the messages found on her mobile phone, Uliarte refused to answer questions, according to press reports.
“I’m going to go with the gun and shoot Cristina,” Uliarte said in a message to her friend Díaz. “I’ve got the ovaries to do it, the problem is the old woman has security. I’m not bullshitting you. I’m putting together a group to go with torches, bombs, gun, everything. I’m going to be the liberator of Argentina. I’ve been practising shooting, I know how to use a gun.”
Her friend Díaz testified for two hours on Wednesday, declaring herself innocent and describing her friend Uliarte as “manipulative, conniving, delusional and over-imaginative”, claiming she only went along with Uliarte’s threats to humour her friend. News footage, however, appears to show Díaz at the scene a few days previous to the attack and Díaz texted Uliarte to erase all their messages after the attack.
A fourth suspect has also been arrested, Gabriel Carrizo, who ran a small cotton-candy business, for whom Uliarte and Sabag Montiel worked, apparently to camouflage their infiltration among the vice-president’s supporters posing as street vendors.
The Federal Revolution extremist group was founded this May by 23-year-old Jonathan Morel, a participant in audio recordings presented to court. The group has participated in anti-government protests, including a torch parade in front of the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace, on 18 August in which fake gallows were displayed, implying this was the fate in store for Fernández de Kirchner. Uliarte participated in this parade, although Morel has presented himself in court denying any link to the attackers.
