Former Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner (CFK) testified in court on Wednesday at the trial investigating her murder attempt. She demanded the judiciary investigate the people who funded and masterminded the incident, which took place on September 1, 2022. 

“The actual perpetrators are here, but not the orchestrators and financial backers,” Kirchner said during the trial hearing, referring to the three defendants who are standing trial for the attack. For more than an hour the former president and vice president answered the prosecutors’ questions, as well as those of her attorneys, at the Comodoro Py courthouse.

Fernando Sabag Montiel — the man who pointed a loaded gun at Kirchner’s face and pulled the trigger — is standing trial along with his ex-girlfriend Brenda Uliarte, and their mutual friend Nicolás Carrizo.

The three were known as the Cotton Candy Gang, given that they worked selling cotton candy in public squares. They are the only ones accused of organizing and carrying out the murder attempt. In previous hearings, Sabag Montiel admitted his goal was to murder Kirchner as an “act of justice.” Uliarte claims she is innocent but has so far refused to testify, while Carrizo took the stand and denied his involvement. All three were charged with aggravated attempted homicide.

During the hearing, Kirchner recalled noticing that a climate of violence had been growing in the country in the months prior to the murder attempt and that it faded away after the failed assassination attempt. 

“Curiously, those who used to come to my door to insult me disappeared after the attack,” she said, adding that she “never thought” an attack like the one she suffered was possible in a democracy.

“I was naive enough not to notice there was a change of era.”

The former president reiterated that, at the time of the attack, she didn’t understand what was happening and never realized she had almost been shot. By the time she found out, Sabag Montiel had already been detained by her security team.

Kirchner, who was president of Argentina between 2007 and 2015 and vice president from 2019 to 2023, said she and her family were emotionally and psychologically affected by the attack. Her granddaughter Helena, she said, was “afraid to go out of her room in fear of being killed.”

“A family that goes through this, suffers consequences,” Kirchner said.

CFK’s side of the attempted murder 

Kirchner’s defense has consistently contended that the so-called Cotton Candy Gang did not act alone and that political organizations linked to President Javier Milei and Security Minister Patricia Bullrich were never investigated. 

One such organization is the far-right group Revolución Federal, which has been charged with inciting violence in a separate case that focused on their actions and violent discourse, which included calling for Kirchner’s assassination. Uliarte participated in the “March of the Torches,” a Revolución Federal protest in which they threw flaming torches and fireworks over the fence of the Casa Rosada.

A PRO deputy, Gerardo Milman, has also been under judicial scrutiny for statements he allegedly made that would implicate him in the assassination attempt.