The assessination attempt against CFK: How is the case progressing before the Argentine justice system?

Two months after the attack suffered by Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, eight people involved in two complex legal cases that are investigating the organization of the assassination attempt, the complicities and threats have already been arrested.

However, there are still multiple loose ends to determine if there were hidden financiers and, above all, political links in the operation, explains journalist Cecilia González for RT.

The first case investigates the attack itself and is headed by the prosecutor Carlos Rívolo and the judge María Eugenia Capuchetti, who has already prosecuted Fernando Sabag Montiel, as the perpetrator; his girlfriend, Brenda Uliarte, accused of organizing and instigating the attack; and Gabriel Carrizo, presumed secondary participant.

Agustina Díaz, a friend of Uliarte, was the fourth processed, but she benefited from a ruling by the Federal Chamber and she will be released.

In another file, which is in the charge of Judge Marcelo Martínez de Giorgi and which investigates crimes of incitement to violence, Jonathan Morel, Leonardo Sosa, Gastón Guerra and Sabrina Basile, members of the extreme right-wing Federal Revolution organization, were arrested. These people, in different public acts , chats and online broadcasts, threatened to kill Fernández de Kirchner, her son Máximo Kirchner and even President Alberto Fernández.

The vice president, through her lawyers, requested that the members of the Federal Revolution be charged as possible participants in the attack, but Judge Capuchetti found no evidence and decided to launch a parallel investigation.

Despite the fact that their fate runs down two different lanes, the seven detainees and the young woman who was released have several bonds of union. The main one is that Uliarte, the girlfriend of the man who pulled the trigger, participated in protests by the far-right organization.

But what really unites the eight, and what was evident at least in their phone chats, is their hatred of Fernández de Kirchner and their explicit wishes that she should die.Polarization after the attack

Despite its seriousness, the assassination attempt was wrapped up in the strong political fights that Argentina has been dragging on for more than a decade, and that are centered on the figure of Fernández de Kirchner.

That night, for example, there were leaders who did not show solidarity with the vice president, such as Patricia Bullrich and Javier Milei, two of the far-right presidential candidates for next year’s general elections.

In addition, the anti-Kirchnerist press and other opposition politicians immediately launched various theories in an effort to minimize the attack. The messages of distrust went viral on social networks.

They first said that the attack had not occurred and that it was «staged» by the government to victimize the vice president, just as one of the main trials against her was underway. They then claimed that Sabag Montiel was «a crazy guy on the loose» who aspired to his «15 minutes of fame» and that he had used «a water pistol». When it was verified that there were more people involved, they assured that it was only a group of «lumpen» without major political significance.

The conservative newspaper La Nación even went so far as to suggest a self-inflicted attack.

«[We do not know] if they are crazy people on the loose or useful idiots, if we are dealing with deranged fanatics or a barely professional criminal group at the service of sectors interested in generating a particular climate or certain political consequences favorable to a political leader whom the Justice system has put on the ropes. We are inclined to this last hypothesis», said the newspaper in an editorial that generated a wide repudiation from the ruling party.

Today, although it is already known that the gun was real, that Sabag Montiel did not act alone and that the attack was organized by different people, the anti-Kirchnerists continue to give no importance to the attack or disbelieve that it really happened.

Meanwhile, the investigation has progressed to reveal information that increasingly complicates a case that, at times, becomes implausible.Things that are ‘unusual’

An alleged gang of people who sell «copitos» (cotton candy), a ‘media’ neighbor, lawyers linked to right-wing politicians, far-right activists involved in a suspicious and millionaire contract with a company linked to the macrismo, a couple who had an unexpected love affair and a deputy who anticipated the attack, are some of the facts that have made the two legal cases, linked to the attack, more complex.

First of all, Uliarte stands out, the 23-year-old girl who is one of the most intriguing characters in this story. Her phone chats show that she instigated the crime and that she had the endorsement or complicity of Agustina Díaz, one of her friends who is part of the group of four prosecuted for the assassination attempt.

The other two defendants are Uliarte’s boyfriend, Fernando Sabag Montiel, who is also already facing an investigation for pedophilia; and Nicolás Carrizo, alleged leader of the group of street vendors of «copitos», of which the young woman was a member.

Last month it was discovered that, just a month before the attack, Uliarte had an affair with Eduardo Prestofelippo, a youtuber known as ‘El Presto’ who became famous thanks to his insults and hate speech against Fernández de Kirchner and of the government.

In fact, «El Presto» is being prosecuted for threats against the vice president and has already been sentenced to 30 days in house arrest for harassing the first lady, Fabiola Yáñez, on social networks.

On the other hand, in the investigation are Brenda Salva and Gastón Marano, Carrizo’s lawyers who were later discovered to be, also, advisers to Deputy Karina Bachey and Senator Ignacio Torres, militants of the party of former President Mauricio Macri. The scandal caused them to be fired from their positions.

Another character is Ximena de Tezanos Pinto, a housewife who lives just upstairs from the Fernández de Kirchner’s apartment, who is also a defender of the last military dictatorship and who began to become famous for hanging flags or messages against the vice president, which attracted the interest of the anti-Kirchnerist press.

After the attack, it was discovered that Tezanos Pinto was renting rooms in her house and that one of her tenants was Gladys Egui, a lawyer for Leonardo Sosa and Gastón Guerra, the leaders of the far-right organization Federal Revolution who are today detained in the parallel case because of threats to the vice president.

Four days before the assassination attempt, they were even at her house and posted photos on her balcony.Strange ties

In the case of the threats, the leader of the Federal Revolution, Jonathan Morel, stands out. A young man who became famous when he brought a wooden guillotine to a march in Plaza de Mayo, in which he proposed to execute Fernández de Kirchner.

Shortly before being arrested, it was discovered that Morel had received 13 million pesos (just over $800,000) from the Caputo Hermanos company, allegedly for payment for some carpentry work. The company is owned by Rosana and Flavio Caputo, who in turn are brothers of Luis Caputo, Macri’s former finance minister.

In addition, the three are cousins of Nicolás Caputo, whom Macri considers his «soul brother». The ruling party suspects that the Caputo family financed the attack on Fernández de Kirchner, but so far there is no evidence of this.

Two weeks before the attack, the macrista deputy Gerardo Milman presented a project in which he asked the president for information on the measures they were taking to prevent violence in the country.

«Let’s hope that no ‘enlightened avant-garde’ person tries to favor the climate of violence that is being constructed, with a false attack on the figure of Cristina, to victimize her» he w,rote in an initiative that turned out to be a premonition.

This week, the newspaper Pagina 12 revealed that there is a witness who, on the night of the attack, wrote to the pro-government deputy Marcos Clerici: «Yesterday when I left your office I went with my brother-in-law to eat in Casablanca. Next to me was Milman with two girls and he graciously said: ‘when they kill her I’m on my way to the coast’ and they laughed their heads off».

When they tried to assassinate the vice president, Milman had indeed gone to the beach. Now he will have to testify in court if he knew beforehand that an attack would take place.