GUN TERROR
Moment man points gun in Vice President of Argentina’s face and pulls trigger in attempted assassination – but it JAMS
SHOCKING footage shows the moment a man pointed a handgun at the Argentine Vice President's face before pulling the trigger in an assassination attempt outside her home.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, 69, was thankfully left unharmed after the handgun misfired just inches from her head, the country's president said.
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Hundreds of supporters had gathered outside the entrance of de Kirchner's home in Buenos Aires on Thursday night when a man threatened the politician with a gun.
Dramatic footage shows the man holding a pistol - understood to be a .32-caliber Bersa -just inches from her head as she greeted the crowd.
The terrified politician can be seen ducking and holding her head as her security officers overpowered the man within seconds after he pulled the trigger.
President Alberto Fernandez said the gun - which was quickly seized - had been loaded with five bullets but jammed when fired.
He said: "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 man - who cops have identified 35-year-old Fernando André Sabag Montiel from Brazil - was detained within seconds.
Just five weeks ago, Montiel - who is understood to have a Nazi tattoo - criticised de Kirchner in a TV interview.
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He was asked what he thought of the appointment of Sergio Massa as the country’s new Minister of Economy.
Montiel answered: “Massa no, no way” before adding in reference to the vice president and 2023 Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei: “Or Cristina or Milei.”
The video of him bad-mouthing the politician he is accused of trying to shoot dead was going viral on Friday along with a second TV interview in which he and his girlfriend criticised benefit scroungers.
The death metal lover, who posted a video on his Instagram in March showing him trying to take a selfie with late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, boasted about his interviews on Argentinian TV station Cronica after appearing on screen.
In one post he wrote: “I appeared on Cronica TV criticising the government and Sergio Massa and the journalists congratulated me saying I knew about politics and should be a journalist."
In another interview on the same TV station where his girlfriend was filmed selling sugar candy in the street, he praised her for working to earn money instead of being a benefits scrounger.
Montiel, wrote on his Instagram account - which appears to have been taken down - after: “You don’t make money by magic but by working.
“Foreigners who work and get up early to open a fruit and veg shop and have 4x4s and nice cars because they work deserve them.
“But we don’t agree with people who come from abroad to occupy a house here and live free with government benefits without working and selling drugs. They should be deported.”
'HATE AND VIOLENCE'
Photos have emerged of Montiel sporting a large black-sun tattoo on his elbow.
The black sun, or sun wheel, is a symbol originally used by Nazi Germany and later by neo-Nazis and is associated with Nazi occultism.
Meanwhile, Sergio Massa, the country’s economy minister, called Thursday's terrifying incident an “attempted assassination.”
“When hate and violence prevail over debate, societies are destroyed and situations like these arise: attempted assassination,”
President Fernandez said it was "the most serious incident since we recovered democracy in 1983 after a military dictatorship".
Former President Mauricio Macri also condemned the attack.
He wrote on Twitter: "This very serious event demands an immediate and profound clarification by the judiciary and security forces."
De Kirchner is currently in the middle of a corruption scandal and was returning from court when she came into contact with the crowd.
She is accused of being involved in a plot to divert public funds while she was president between 2007 to 2015.
Prosecutors said de Kirchner could face up to 12 years in prison if convicted and a lifetime ban from politics.
She has denied all of the charges.
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