(Buenos Aires) The failed attack in 2022 against the then Argentine vice-president Cristina Kirchner was “an act of justice”, for “the good of society”, targeting a “corrupt woman”, the accused claimed on Wednesday N.1 on the first day of the trial, taking on with astonishing calm an act which could have led to “a civil war”.
It was “an act of justice and not an act in which I tried to make a financial profit,” said Fernando Sabag Montiel, rejecting the hypothesis of a vast conspiracy, suggested several times by the Kirchner camp, and according to which he would have been mandated or financed.
At the same time relaxed, talkative, and collaborating in detail with the court, he spoke bluntly of a “personal motivation” for the attack, “an ethical connotation […] having to do more with the general interest than anything else. Mme Kirchner “is corrupt, who steals and harms society,” he said.
However, he denied a strictly speaking “political” motive. “More than anything, I am apolitical, and my reasons for the attack are not a position that would be the antipodes of Kirchnerism […] it was a personal goal and not for the benefit of any political sector,” he said.
Later, responding to a question, he even clarified that he had, during discussions with friends, affirmed that the ultraliberal Javier Milei, then in full political ascension until his conquest of the presidency in December 2023, “did not please him not a lot ”
Sabag Montiel, 37, an occasional VTC driver, is the main one of three accused for the attack on 1er September 2022 against the former head of state (from 2007 to 2015) and then vice-president.
PHOTO TOMAS CUESTA, REUTERS
Fernando Sabag Montiel, the main accused
“I wanted to kill Cristina”
Mingling one evening with a small crowd of sympathizers in front of M’s homeme Kirchner in Buenos Aires, he had pointed a pistol “less than a meter” from his head. By some miracle, the loaded gun was not engaged, and the shot did not go off. He was subdued on the spot.
The attack, the most serious act of political violence since the return of democracy 40 years ago, traumatized Argentina.
The next day, emotional demonstrations of support for Mme Kirchner –– including a monster in Buenos Aires – had brought together tens of thousands of people in several cities.
“We have just experienced a miracle,” the historian Sergio Wischnevsky mused, convinced that if the shot had killed, the country “would have entered a spiral of violence” which would have led it “to hell.”
In court, Sabag Montiel appeared to want to take sole responsibility for the act and dissociate his co-defendants, his ex-girlfriend Brenda Uliarte, 25 years old, judged as co-perpetrator, and a friend, Nicolas Carrizo 29 years old, accomplice. The prosecution, relying on email exchanges, identified planning between them.
For Sabag Montiel, Carrizo was not aware “of what I was going to do”. And Uliarte had a lesser degree of “commitment”. “I wanted to kill Cristina, and she wanted her to die”, to be a “spectator”. The young woman, on the scene that same evening, was not arrested until three days later.
But “better” without civil war
One of the questions hovering over the attack is the degree of planning, its scale: a simple trio of hateful losers, or a darker plot as suspected by M.me Kirchner?
She had pointed the finger at “identified” private funding, according to her, to the government of her liberal successor Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).
She also tried, in vain, to have the investigating judge challenged, who ultimately did not retain “objective elements” suggesting a political lead. Such as strangely premonitory remarks attributed to a right-wing MP, or a far-right group, “Revolucion Federal”, which Uliarte had approached very briefly.
Sabag Montiel, since his arrest, has always maintained that he “acted alone”. Expert reports have described a “narcissistic” personality, with “extravagant” speech. At the very least verbose, as his 2:30 hour testimony showed, sometimes bordering on confusion.
“I would feel more repentant if it had succeeded,” he declared, probing his remorse. While recognizing that the attack could have led to “a civil war”. But that “sometimes it’s better that things don’t happen…”
The trial was adjourned until July 3. With one hearing day scheduled per week, it is expected to last between six months and a year, with more than 270 witnesses expected: investigators, security agents, friends of the accused, and Mr.me Kirchner herself, apparently not for weeks.