MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Argentina: Security around President Fernández tightened

Threats on social media cannot be taken lightly

Following the Sept. 1 assassination attempt against Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK), Argentine authorities have made changes regarding security protocols around President Alberto Fernández and other high-ranking officials, it was reported Friday in Buenos Aires.

“There were threats that before were allowed to pass so that they would not say that we were exaggerating, but we saw that they could take action,” a security agency source was quoted by the NA news service as saying. There is “a rarefied atmosphere” not seen since 1983, they added.

In this scenario, threats made through social media or telephone calls are being considered more seriously, it was also reported. “It was impossible to imagine what happened with the vice-president, even for Cristina. Such things did not happen in Argentina,” the sources argued.

Regarding the people under arrest for the Sept. 1 attack, the sources said the four of them were “young people who are outside the system, who are used” far-right “coup plotters.”

Meanwhile, an agreement with the opposition Juntos por el Cambio to “lower the level of violence and hatred” in society was deemed unfeasible because “they are not willing to dialogue.”

President Fernández recalled earlier this week in statements to Spanish media that Fernando Sabag Montiel, Brenda Uliarte, Agustina Díaz, and Nicolás Carrizo -the 4 suspects in custody- had warned that the head of state would be next. He insisted that although he would not like to be separated from the people during his public outings he will have to be more attentive.

Sabag Montiel “is not a Martian who came to shoot Cristina Kirchner, he is not a person who came out of our society, he is one who lives in our society,” President Fernández explained.