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Argentina is a country of political theatre and of conspiracies, both real and imagined. Think, for example, of Eva (“Evita”) Perón, the actress turned darling of the descamisados (shirtless ones) who died aged just 33 and whose embalmed body was stolen by army officers who abhorred her and feared her seductive influence from the grave. Or think of the political murders which remain unsolved. One was the bombing of a Jewish community centre in Buenos Aires in 1994 which killed 85 people. Two decades later Alberto Nisman, a prosecutor, filed charges against the then president, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, for covering up an Iranian connection to the bombing (she said this was “absurd”). The night before he was due to present his case his body was discovered lying in a pool of blood at his flat. The authorities said he had committed suicide. Many believe he was murdered.
Now Argentina is again confronted with events which combine theatre and, seemingly, conspiracy of one kind or another. On September 1st a man aimed a gun at point-blank range at the face of Ms Fernández, who is now the vice-president, and pulled the trigger. She survived “because for some reason…the gun didn’t fire,” said the president, Alberto Fernández (no relation). He decried what he called “hate speech” spread by sections of the political, media and judicial worlds. Certainly some of her opponents have been guilty of inflammatory rhetoric, with calls for her to face the death penalty. But the incident is freighted with unanswered questions.
The assailant, Fernando Montiel, is a 35-year-old drifter who was picked up and released last year for possession of an offensive weapon. His tattoos and some social media posts suggested far-right sympathies. Did he act alone, or was he part of a broader plot? How did Ms Fernández’s 30-strong security detail let him get so close when she was greeted by sympathisers as she returned to her flat? And what does this attack presage for Argentina’s polarised politics?
The incident came as a prosecutor is seeking a 12-year jail sentence against Ms Fernández for alleged involvement in steering public-works contracts padded by around $1bn to a crony in Santa Cruz, a province in Patagonia which her late husband once governed. She denies wrongdoing and says the allegations are political. She unleashed a tirade denouncing a supposed plot against her, calling on her supporters to take to the streets.
Ms Fernández leads the leftist-populist wing of Peronism, Argentina’s dominant political movement, named for Eva and her husband, Juan Perón. As president from 2007 to 2015 she combined liberal measures, such as legalising gay marriage, with nationalist and statist economics and political clientelism. She ramped up taxes on farmers, prompting them to protest, and spent the money on hand-outs to poorer Argentines. She tried and failed to control the judiciary and private media groups.
Her political fortunes had been declining in tandem with Argentina’s worsening economy. She picked Mr Fernández, a former critic who had greater appeal for moderates, to head the Peronist ticket in the election of 2019 and to act as her proxy. But she fell out with him after he agreed with the imf to enact austerity measures which she fears would hurt her political clientele in the impoverished suburbs of Buenos Aires. She has no policy answers for an economy in which inflation is running at 71% and the Central Bank is printing money and running out of foreign-exchange reserves. In July she was unable to stop Sergio Massa, another rival Peronist, from taking over a beefed-up economy ministry with a programme to cut indiscriminate subsidies.
Ms Fernández is the most cunning Argentine politician of her generation. She has exploited the legal case against her, saying it was “an attack on the whole of Peronism” which has duly united behind her. Mr Montiel’s action has supercharged her claim to be a victim. Mr Fernández declared a public holiday for the day after, allowing tens of thousands to march for her in Buenos Aires. The opposition, too, denounced violence.
Mr Montiel has said little so far. His mobile phone was completely wiped while police were examining it, erasing much potentially relevant information. Many will take at face value the president’s warning against the far right. Others are more sceptical. It is part of Argentina’s drama that its people may never know what really happened, or why, on September 1st.
Read more from Bello, our columnist on Latin America:
The drift to authoritarianism accelerates in Central America (Aug 11th)
Latin America’s energy subsidies are good politics but bad policy (Jul 28th)
Latin American politicians yearn for Utopia (Jul 23rd)
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read moreAs time went by, this blog was developed for many different purposes. Last time, I had a lot of pleasure in sharing some of my Lego-related hobbies. However, I will mostly upload a blog about bikes and their development in the next few months! Recently, I have so much into ebike cargo. They say this type of bike can replace the car! And I am very into it since my place is crowded with traffic jams! The video above showed a funny situation: I started the review from Brooks's handle! And after nine years! It's still an excellent bike handle and not even destroyed!
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Hi, hi, hi. So, it's been a while for the last couple of weeks since I have considered buying a cargo bike. The reason is that I am often trapped in a traffic jam because I can't get faster in my car.
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Congrats! Indonesia launched Southeast Asia’s first bullet train.
Custom LEGO Transformers Devastator
My faith in humanity is restored! OK, that’s a bit overboard – but you couldn’t blame me if you see an incredibly, exquisitely and wonderfully executed custom LEGO Transformers Devastator such as this by Alex Jones. I feel transported to the 80’s once again, with the same intense childhood wonder when I first saw the Constructicons combine and become the formidable Devastator.
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