The would-be assassin, whose gun jammed when he went to shoot Argentina’s vice president, is reportedly a 35-year-old Brazilian man with a Nazi tattoo.
Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner was greeting supporters outside her home in Buenos Aires on Thursday night (September 1) when a man in the crowd pointed a handgun in her face.
The weapon was loaded with five bullets, according to reports, but failed to discharge when the trigger was pulled, sparing the 69-year-old vice president’s life.
And now her would-be killer, who has been taken into custody, has been named as 35-year-old Brazilian man Fernando Andre Sabag Montiel.
He goes by the name Fernando Salim Cristiano on social media, where he has more than 800 followers and presents himself as a churchgoing Christian.
The tattoo is of a Black Sun, or Schwarze Sonne in German, is a type of wheel originally employed in Nazi Germany which first appeared as a design element in a castle remodelled by SS chief Heinrich Himmler.
It became widely used by neo-Nazis in the late 20th century and often appears on extremist flags and posters.
It links him ideologically to the racist killer who killed 10 black people in May outside a US grocery store.
It is the same symbol 18-year-old gunman Payton Gendron used in a manifesto issued before the Buffalo, New York shooting.
Brenton Tarrant, the Australian who killed 51 people and injured another 40 in a terrorist attack on two mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand in March 2019, also had a Black Sun symbol emblazoned on his rucksack.
The 35-year-old Sao Paulo-born driver, who had been living in Argentina since 1993, had a Black Sun tattoo on his left elbow.
Montiel, son of an Argentinian mum who died five years ago and a Chilean dad said to have been kicked out of Brazil, also had an Iron Cross inked on his right hand.
He was arrested in March last year after being found in possession of a knife.
The 14-inch weapon fell out of his Chevrolet Prisma car after he was stopped by police because he was missing one of his number plates.
He insisted he had it for self-defence and although he was detained, the case against him was shelved some time later and didn’t result in a criminal conviction.
Montiel, whose full name is Fernando Andre Sabag Montiel, is said to have used a semi-automatic .32-caliber Bersa to try to kill 69-year-old Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
And just five weeks before the assassination attempt, Montiel was seen criticising her during a live TV interview.
Montiel was asked what he thought of the appointment of Sergio Massa as the country’s new Minister of Economy.
He answered: “Massa no, no way” before adding in reference to vice president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner and 2023 Argentine presidential candidate Javier Milei: “Or Cristina or Milei.”
The video of him bad-mouthing the woman he is accused of trying to shoot dead outside her Buenos Aires home was going viral today along with a second TV interview in which he and his girlfriend criticised benefit scroungers.
The death metal lover, who posted a video on his Instagram in March showing him trying to take a selfie with late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, boasted about his interviews on Argentinian TV station Cronica after appearing on screen.
In one post he wrote: “I appeared on Cronica TV criticising the government and Sergio Massa and the journalists congratulated me saying I knew about politics and should be a journalist."
In another interview on the same TV station where his girlfriend was filmed selling sugar candy in the street, he praised her for working to earn money instead of being a benefits scrounger.
Montiel, who despite being born in Brazil speaks Spanish perfectly with an Argentinian accent, wrote on his Instagram afterwards: “You don’t make money by magic but by working.
“Foreigners who work and get up early to open a fruit and veg shop and have 4x4s and nice cars because they work deserve them.
“But we don’t agree with people who come from abroad to occupy a house here and live free with government benefits without working and selling drugs. They should be deported.”
Cronica TV was running one of the videos on its website today with the strapline: “The hitman who wanted to kill Cristina spoke to Cronica.”
Montiel, nicknamed Tedi in the Buenos Aires neighbourhood of Villa del Parque where he lived, posted a video of him trying to take a selfie with Taylor Hawkins in March after the drummer's drug-related death in a Colombian hotel.
He wrote on his Instagram, which was no longer online today: "Video with Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters a week before he died.
"I feel his death very much having known him before he went."
On his social media page, he has selfies with celebrities such as trans media personality Zulma Lobato and influencer La Chabona, according to Zyri.
He has also appeared on Argentine TV, including a recent appearance on the channel Cronica, in which he criticised the Argentine government and Economy Minister Sergio Massa.
In a social media post recounting the appearance, he wrote “neither Milei nor Cristina”, apparently referring to National Deputy Javier Milei and Vice President Fernandez de Kirchner.
Sabag Montiel had entered Argentina from Uruguay in 2018 and was apparently living in Buenos Aires at the time of the attempted killing.
Argentine President Alberto Fernandez called the attempt on Fernandez de Kirchner one of the “most serious” incidents since the country’s return to democracy in 1983.
Fernandez de Kirchner is currently on trial for corruption. She is accused of fraudulently awarding public works contracts to a family friend.
She reportedly faces 12 years in jail and a life-long ban from holding public office.
