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The Politics of Hate and Attempts to Assassinate Presidents. The Case of Cristina Kirchner.
by [Name Removed]
Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was Argentina’s vice president when, on September 1, 2022, Fernando Sabag Montiel, 37, pointed a gun at her face, just a few centimeters away, and pulled the trigger. But he didn’t act alone. Despite claiming he did and didn’t, he was part of a group. In a recent deposition, in the Comodoro Py courts, located on the homonymous avenue in the Retiro neighborhood of Buenos Aires, Sabag Montiel justified his actions and, for the first time, confessed his intention to kill the former president.
Less than a month ago, the news of the attempted assassination involving the “algodão-doce” vendors returned to the headlines. “The doctor Kirchner is corrupt, steals, and harms society.” And Sabag Montiel added, “Anyone feels the same way I do.” As if implying that he acted on behalf of others, a kind of vigilante. After all, he said he did it for an “ethical” reason and committed an “act of justice.” The presidential ticket, Alberto Fernández and Cristina Kirchner, won the 2019 elections with 48.24% of the votes.
In that context, and even before, the country was already living in a polarized political scenario, with kirchneristas versus macristas. The politics of hate was already installed, although not yet at the levels achieved with the violent rhetoric of the current government of Javier Milei. It was common to see the mass media reproducing how Cristina Kirchner was called by her opponents, “égua,” “terrorist,” “senhora atrás do botox.” This polarized scenario, between the center-left and right, with the extreme right of Javier Milei, deepened.
The politics of hate has become a recurring theme in debates, articles, studies, and editorials. Some analysts argue that emotions are now the basis of political maintenance and organization. In other words, hate as an enabler of political opinion and social belonging. Milei and Bolsonaro are two clear examples of the success of using hate in politics. Hate generates social bonds.
The attempted assassination of Cristina Fernández returned to the scene recently, with the start of the oral trial of the three accused. Named in the media as “algodão-doce” vendors, they worked at school gates and in public squares. “Brenda Uliarte wanted to be a spectator at that moment, more than a participant.” That’s how Sabag Montiel described his ex-girlfriend’s role, also arrested and accused as a co-perpetrator. On the same day, after the failed assassination attempt, Brenda sent the following text messages: “Next time, I’ll do it. I, yes, know how to shoot well. My hand won’t tremble.”
These messages were sent to the third involved party, Gabriel Carrizo, 28, accused as a secondary participant, who allegedly gave Sabag the gun. The three remain in custody since September 2022. In the newspapers, a difference in headlines was that Carrizo, according to what is known, is the “chief of the algodão-doce” gang. He would be the owner of the “copitos” cart, in Spanish also known as “copos de azúcar.” That’s why “copitos,” in the diminutive form. If these headlines about the algodão-doce and “los copitos” were able to attract more clicks, that’s something that can be supposed to be true.
In this first testimony, Brenda appeared visibly weakened and did not conclude her testimony. She made a mistake about her age, saying she was 24, and had just turned 25 a few days earlier. She was uncertain when answering questions about where she lived at the time of the attempted assassination, looking at Fernando Sabag: “With a convicted and a manipulator.” A week later, while accompanying the testimony of a private secretary of Cristina Kirchner via Zoom, Uliarte laughed, yawned, and made other gestures in front of the camera. For this reason, the session was interrupted several times.
On that September 1, almost two years ago, when Sabag attacked CFK, it was just another day of vigilance by the militancy at Cristina Kirchner’s house in the Recoleta neighborhood of Buenos Aires. On that day, the former vice president also autographed her book, “Sinceramente,” published in 2019. Peronist CFK, throughout her political journey, is a figure who has sparked both extreme loves and hates.
In 2015, an edition of the “Revista Notícias,” known for its persecution of Cristina Fernández, featured on its cover the ex-president pointing her finger at her own head, as if it were a gun. And the headline read, “The suicidal game of Cristina.” When the attempted assassination occurred, much was discussed about the role of the media in spreading hate in politics. And also social media as a place to stimulate such practices.
Even in the month of the attack, in 2022, the news circulated insistently, citing “the algodão-doce” gang. The photo of Cristina Kirchner with the gun pointed at her face, still dominated the public debate. TV channels were ecstatic in those first days of September. The image, a video capture of the “algodão-doce” vendors, “los copitos,” their seriousness and pose in an image taken from TV, seen by millions. “Urgent: speaks the girlfriend of the detainee,” announced the Telefé Noticias program, less than 24 hours after the event. And Brenda Uliarte, live, responded to the presenter, “I learned from TV,” that her boyfriend Sabag had fired at CFK. The presenter continued with his questions, “And how was that moment?” Two days after her participation in Telefé, and three days after the attempted assassination, Uliarte was arrested by the police at a train station in Palermo, Buenos Aires, and taken into custody.
While this is being investigated, the possible connections of the three participants in the attack with other political groups are being investigated. “Revolución Federal,” a group of extreme right, known as neonazis, became famous for their scuffles in the Plaza de Mayo and surroundings. With torches and a wooden guillotine, this group of young people, led by Jonathan Ezequiel Morel and Leonardo Franco Sosa, 25, protested against the peronist government, with signs that read, “All prisoners, dead or exiled.” The guillotine, clearly, was there to demonstrate what should be done with politicians.
Gabriel Carrizo, called the “chief of the copitos,” would be linked to the group of the guillotine, which, by the way, is homemade. There are photos of Morel, in his workshop, smiling, next to his artifact built for protests. At the request of Cristina Kirchner’s defense, members of “Revolución Federal,” investigated for participating in the attack, are prohibited from approaching the former president and her family. However, the three implicated in the attempted assassination of CFK, Ezequiel Morel, Franco Sosa, and Gastón Ángel Guerra, participated in protests in favor of the Milei government and were invited to the Chamber of Deputies by the deputies of “A Liberdade Avança” (LLA), the government party.
Far from so many possible networks and plots between different involved parties, Adélio Bispo dos Santos, the author of the stab wound against ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, in the midst of the campaign, in 2018, acted alone. He disagrees with the final conclusion of the case that concludes “insanity.” He said he never agreed with his lawyer’s defense, which alleged his insanity, and that “he is a confessed defendant and would like to have been treated as such only.”
The words that will never be known from a failed assassination attempt will be those of Thomas Matthew Crooks, 20, the author of the shots against Donald Trump, during a campaign event in Pennsylvania. The boy, “the shooter,” was killed in the moment of the shots by the US Secret Service. Bolsonarism sustains a discourse of hate. The Trumpism discourse is equally a violent discourse.
Synchronizing with feelings of anger, hate, aggression, and rage is a political strategy. The ultradirections have led their electorate, not only, but also through these emotions. While the emergence of the extreme right is a relatively recent phenomenon, and, therefore, in the process of knowing the results of their socio-cultural and economic programs, attempts to assassinate presidents have crossed centuries.
Maíra Vasconcelos is a journalist and writer from Belo Horizonte, living in Buenos Aires. She writes about politics and economy, mainly about Argentina, for the Jornal GGN since 2014. She has covered some presidential elections in Latin America (Paraguay, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay). She writes chronicles for the GGN since 2014. She has published a book of poems, “Um quarto que fala” (Urutau, 2018) and also a booklet, “O livro dos outros – poemas dedicados à leitura” (Oficios Terrestres, 2021).
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