A little over two weeks after the Sept. 1 assassination attempt against Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, investigators have produced irrefutable proof that this was not a “lone wolf” attack, but a carefully planned event, involving a group of poor lumpen youth who worked as street vendors (known as “los Topitos”) but who were clearly deployed and financed by other networks. Would-be assassin Fernando Sabag Montiel and his girlfriend Brenda Uliarte are under arrest and indicted for “aggravated premeditated attempted murder.” Two other of their collaborators are under arrest and more arrests are expected.
On one level, these individuals are part of a broader fascist apparatus built up especially over the past 4-5 months, a kind of local “strategy of tension,” which has staged a series of violent demonstrations over this period, targetting Fernández de Kirchner specifically, but also President Alberto Fernández, legislators from the ruling Front for All coalition, and anyone else connected to what they termed the Kirchner “parasites.” The Topitos describe themselves as “haters” as well as anti-Semites, and variously pro-Hitler anti-government anarchists. They are linked to the Federal Revolution and Nation of Dispossessed right-wing nihilist groups, whose tactics over the last four months have included placing a guillotine in front of the Presidential palace with Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s name on it, and putting body bags there with the names of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, President Alberto Fernández, and others.
While specialized police agencies investigating the murder attempt have accumulated extensive evidence identifying these local networks and are correctly zeroing in on the money trail, they are, however, making a strategic mistake by treating this is a local matter and not pursuing the critical international leads—not least of which are Sabag’s Azov Regiment Black Sun and swastika tattoos. This is a similar mistake to that made by former Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in 2016 when she was overthrown in an internationally orchestrated bankers’ coup, but insisted on identifying the perpetrators of her ouster only as local opponents. She waged a heroic fight to defend herself, but ultimately failed.
