Fernandez de Kirchner assassination attempt shows rising threat of political violence in Latin America

The spectre of violence, never far from the surface in South American politics, is coalescing rapidly in the continent’s biggest economies, fed by a dangerous mix of rising poverty and political polarisation.

Argentina’s leftist Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner escaped an assassination attempt, on Friday after a man fired a loaded gun at her that failed to go off inches from her head.

It comes with Argentina mired in economic crisis with spiralling debt levels and inflation that has triggered street protests.

President Alberto Fernandez said the incident was “the most serious event we have gone through since Argentina returned to democracy,” referring to the 1983 end of military rule.

Fernandez de Kirchner, a divisive figure inside Argentina who was president between 2007 and 2015, is on trial for corruption.

Political opponents have been accused of fomenting hatred against her.

“When hate and violence prevail over debate, societies are destroyed and situations like these arise,” tweeted Economy Minister Sergio Massa.

Only hours before the assassination attempt, President Fernández was himself accused of threatening remarks after saying he hoped the prosecutor leading one corruption trial against Fernández de Kirchner didn’t kill himself like, he said, another prosecutor had done after pressing charges against her.

The dead prosecutor, Alberto Nisman was killed by a gunshot wound in January 2015, a day before he was scheduled to present evidence against then-president Cristina Fernández, whom he accused of conspiring with Iran to cover up its alleged involvement in a 1994 bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires.

The main opposition coalition, United for Change, said Fernandez’s statement was “a veiled threat against the federal prosecutor’s personal safety”.

Allies of the former president insist Nisman died by suicide. But the opposition says he was murdered or was encourage to kill himself.

Former Brazilian president and presidential candidate Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, denounced Thursday’s attack on Fernández de Kirchner.

But Lula, the left-wing populist, who is challenging far-right incumbent Jair Bolsonaro has his own safety to worry about.

Reports suggest federal police agents have been checking dustbins for explosive devices before Lula’s press conferences. He has taken to wearing a bullet-proof vest.

In 2018, Bolsonaro notoriously called for supporters to “machine-gun” their leftist opponents. Bolsonaro himself was stabbed on the campaign trail in 2018.

Bolsonaro’s son and election campaign manager Senator Flavio Bolsonaro has said his father would not be able to control how his supporters reacted, if he lost the October election, raising fears of a Trump-style insurrection in Latin America’s biggest country.

Gustavo Pedro, Colombia’s first leftist president regularly surrounded himself with a small army of police officers, indigenous guards and additional security staff during his election rallies this year for fear of assassination.

He regularly spoke next to men carrying large bulletproof shields, and at one rally listed the names of Colombian leaders who have been assassinated, including Jorge Eliécer Gaitán, a presidential hopeful whose death in 1948 set off decades of violence in the country. 

Reference: Michael Day