Man who tried to shoot Argentina’s vice president Cristina Kirchner charged with attempted homicide

Vice president says she is alive ‘because of god and the virgin Mary’

The man who tried to shoot Argentina's vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has been charged with attempted homicide on Thursday.

Fernando Sabag Montiel, a 35-year-old Brazilian citizen, pointed a Bersa handgun at the vice president just inches away from her face when the leader was greeting her supporters outside her home on 1 September.

He pulled the trigger twice but for reasons unknown, the loaded handgun failed to go off. Ms Fernandez de Kirchner survived the assassination attempt unharmed.

He was overpowered and arrested shortly. His 23-year-old girlfriend Brenda Uliarte, who was reportedly present at the spot, was arrested three days later and charged with homicide.

The woman has been accused of instigating Mr Montiel. “I am going to send Cristina to be killed,” Ms Uliarte reportedly wrote to her 21-year-old friend Agustina Díaz a few days before the attack.

Maria Capuchetti, the judge leading the case, issued charges of attempted aggravated homicide with premeditation against Mr Montiel and Ms Uliarte. The duo will remain in police custody, according to court documents.

President Alberto Fernandez in a televised address called the failed attack the “most serious event we have gone through since Argentina returned to democracy”.

The authorities have based the investigation primarily on the analysis of the suspects' social media accounts and electronic devices.

This "was studied in detail by the two (defendants) to choose the right time for the attack," judge Capuchetti, according to AFP.

The country's intelligence officials are also investigating possible links between the suspects and Federal Revolution — a far-right extremist group that reportedly discussed conducting a similar attack on 28 August.

Mr Montiel has been living in Argentina since the 1990s and photos posted to his now-inactive social networks appear to show he has Nazi symbols tattooed on his arm.

Two acquaintances of the couple, identified as 21-year-old Agustina Diaz, and Gabriel Carrizo, 27, were arrested earlier this week. They both are yet to be charged.

In her first public statement since the assassination attempt, Ms Fernandez de Kirchner said she is alive “because of god and the virgin Mary”.

“So it seems to me that if I had to thank god and the virgin I had to do it surrounded by priests,” she said at a meeting with priests and nuns on Thursday.

She also expressed gratitude to Pope Francis for calling her hours after the attack.

Ms Fernandez de Kirchner had earlier served as president for two terms between 2007 and 2015. She is in the middle of a corruption trial, in which a federal prosecutor has called on a court to sentence her to 12 years in prison and a lifetime ban on public service.

The vice president has denied all the allegations.