A police spokesman told CNN Sabag Montiel had a gun permit but was arrested in 2021 for carrying a large knife in public, adding that he has at least one tattoo of Nazi symbols. Immigration officials said he was born in the Brazilian city of Sao Paulo on January 13, 1987 and had lived in Argentina since 1993. Video of the incident shows Fernández de Kirchner smiling as she walks past a large crowd of supporters. A man then steps forward and points a gun at her face. No shots were fired and the vice president was not injured, although Argentina’s security ministry later confirmed that the .380 caliber handgun used in the incident had bullets inside. “Cristina is still alive because — for some reason we cannot technically confirm at the moment — the gun, which was armed with five bullets, did not fire even though the trigger was pulled,” said Argentina’s President Alberto. Fernandez on a TV show. address late on Thursday. The attack on Fernández de Kirchner, who served as the country’s President from 2007 to 2015 before becoming vice president in 2019, has shocked the nation and the wider region. Leaders from Mexico, Cuba, Chile and Venezuela reacted with horror to the news and expressed their solidarity with Fernández de Kirchner, while the Argentine President declared Friday a national holiday so the public could rally support . Sabag Montiel’s girlfriend, who took part in a live interview on Argentine state television after his arrest, said she too was struggling to understand what happened. Sabag Montiel was a “good, hard-working man” who had shown no signs of violence “in recent weeks,” said his girlfriend, who was identified in the interview only by her first name, Ambar. She said she had last seen him on Wednesday and could not understand “why he did what he did”. “In all honesty, I didn’t know all that. [Sabag] he didn’t tell me any details,” Ambar said. Sabag is currently in custody awaiting trial on charges of attempted murder and has been assigned a public defense attorney, according to two judges. Supporters of the vice president have been rallying near her home for several days to oppose prosecutors’ request that she serve a 12-year prison sentence for alleged corruption. Last weekend, clashes between her supporters and police injured 14 law enforcement officials and led to four arrests.
