KEHINDE FAJOBI
Argentina’s Vice President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner narrowly escaped assassination on Thursday after a gun pointed at her face failed to fire.
The incident happened as Fernandez de Kirchner stepped out of a car outside her home in the Argentine capital of Buenos Aires, where hundreds of supporters had gathered.
According to video footage of the assassination attempt that has since gone viral, a man held a pistol next to her head, pulling the trigger but it failed to fire before he was subdued.
President Alberto Fernandez said the gun had been loaded with five bullets.
“This is the most serious event we have gone through since Argentina returned to democracy,” he said in a televised address, referring to the 1983 end of military rule.
“A man pointed a firearm at her head and pulled the trigger. Cristina is still alive because, for some reason yet to be confirmed, the gun … did not fire.”
The suspected assailant has been identified by authorities as a 35-year-old man of Brazilian origin and was quickly arrested by police at the scene with the weapon seized.
Heads of state and political leaders in the region such as Chilean President Gabriel Boric, Venezuela’s Nicolas Maduro, Peru’s Pedro Castillo and Brazilian presidential candidate Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva have all denounced the attack.