Cristina Fernández, after the failed attack: “At first it was very bad, destroyed”

In the early hours of a Thursday that she will never forget, in her apartment in Recoleta, the vice president was accompanied by a handful of intimates, including her son Máximo, one of the first to arrive after the frustrated attack, the leader Mayra Mendoza and the minister of the Inside, Eduardo ‘Wado’ De Pedro. They were, along with custodians and secretaries, who shared the moments after the attempted attack. “After what happened, after this madness, everything changes: nothing will be the same anymore,” he told elDiarioAr, an official from Kirchner’s circle.

“Not only was she saved because, by a miracle, the bullet did not come out. We were all saved: if they killed her, can anyone imagine what this country would be like at this time? ”, Analyzed, in the middle of the night, a figure in almost daily contact with the vice president.

Attempt

After nine o’clock at night in Argentina, in the minutes immediately after the attack, Cristina made what was, for a long time, her comment on what had happened. “At the time I didn’t realize anything,” she said, like an automatic mantra. This was shown by the TV images and she herself related it to several of the many people with whom she spoke between Thursday night and Friday morning. During the attack, she did not react: even seconds after the shot into the void, the tumult and the screams, when Kirchner was led into the building, she still did not understand what had happened. Then her security team moved her to her apartment on the fifth floor.

It was at that time, as elDiarioAR has reconstructed, in which the vice president understood the dimension of what had happened, she was shocked, in shock. “At first it was very bad, destroyed. Afterwards I was calmer”, two close sources agreed. “I spoke with her and she is fine,” attorney Gregorio Dalbón said on Public Television. “You have to keep a cool head,” was the repeated indication of the vice president.

Shortly before eleven o’clock at night, while outside –and below– militants were piling up and the songbook that had been resounding for days on that corner of Recoleta multiplied, Cristina began to gradually order her next moves. She was told that pro-government and opposition legislators in the Senate had met and had taken a photo together and they conveyed to her the idea of ​​convening, simultaneously, special sessions in Deputies and Senators.

The initial alternative, pushed by José Mayans, aimed at convening the Legislative Assembly, the meeting of the two bodies. This Friday the format will be resolved and a consultation round will be held with the opposition leaders. “Some of those who were in Congress are terrified: they fed this,” they said from the FdT bloc (governing coalition).

open phone

Cristina had a telephone conversation with Alberto Fernández, who told her that he would give a speech on Cadena Nacional. By then, both knew the first facts: that the weapon – a 32-caliber Bersa automatic – was working and that they had found five bullets in the magazine, but none in the chamber.

At that time, an explanation circulated around the vice president that enhanced the drama: Cristina was not injured because, by mistake or inexperience, the shooter did not reload the pistol, an action necessary for there to be a bullet in the chamber. He didn’t even get to fire a second shot that would have had the same effect.

The presidential message was finally broadcast at 11:55 p.m. In the environment of the vice, some were surprised by the presidential announcement decreeing a national holiday to facilitate the mobilization in rejection of the attack. “Alberto did not know that a national CGT strike was underway,” they told elDiarioAR.

By then, after a consultation with his mother, Máximo transmitted the order to suspend the Congress of the Buenos Aires Justicialist Party, which was convened for Saturday in the municipal park of Merlo and would have as the only speaker, with a scheduled time for 12:30 hours, to Cristina.

In parallel, a network of calls and messages was activated between mayor leaders of Greater Buenos Aires and leaders of La Cámpora. Before one o’clock in the morning it was decided to make a mobilization to Plaza de Mayo. At that time, just arrived from La Plata, Axel Kicillof, governor of the province of Buenos Aires, had entered the apartment of the vice and a few minutes later Senator Juliana Di Tullio, president of the Unidad Ciudadana bloc, joined the group.

The suspension of Saturday’s meeting, the first stop in a series of acts in which the vice president would speak on the way to the verdict of the trial in the Vialidad case, was interpreted in a linear sense: concern for the security of the vice president who, with Thursday’s episode, he settled into his closest group. “Now they are going to have to investigate very well what happened: not only Justice. Also the federal forces, the Federal Intelligence Agency… and the city police! That the police officers sent by Larreta [alcalde de Buenos Aires]who spent their time filming, provide this material to the researchers! ”, They claimed from the christianity.

The protection of the vice president is, since last Saturday, a topic of conversation. With the fencing that the Buenos Aires police deployed, Cristina declared herself besieged by the government of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta. In parallel, a discussion broke out – with judicial referral – about what the City police could or could not do and what role the Federal Police had.

The Argentine Security Minister, Aníbal Fernández, ordered on Tuesday to expand the custody of the vice. The measure became effective when the Buenos Aires troops withdrew, after a ruling by a Buenos Aires judge. On Wednesday night, a Rappi delivery man passed through the area, insulted the vice and carried out an act for which he ended up, later, arrested. On Thursday, hours before the attack, the federal government and the city of Buenos Aires signed an agreement.

On Monday, elDiarioAR consulted collaborators of the vice about the custody and, in particular, about whether the existence of risks had been evaluated when, on Saturday night, Cristina spoke from a stage set up in the middle of the street. “She is very well taken care of: it is the custody team that has been with her since she was president.”

That statement remains, after the attempted attack, under discussion. At least the operating dynamics because, as Aníbal Fernández confirmed, at the vigils in Juncal and Uruguay, except for the cordon of militants who set up a corral for the vice president to move around, there were no controls on who, under what conditions and for what purpose. , came to greet the vice.

PI