Last Thursday at 9:00 p.m., Vice President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner was attacked at the door of her home. In history, magnicides are a rather current phenomenon.
There are several cases that can exemplify this, being the best known and the trigger of the first world war, the murder of Duke Francisco Fernando in the present capital of Bosnia, Sarajevo. Other famous cases are Kennedy's murder in the Texan capital of Dallas, while the president was running a parade.
Some less known as Napoleon III's assassination attempt, when his attacker Felice Orsini convinced himself that the French emperor was the main obstacle to Italian independence and the cause of anti-liberal reactions in Europe and attacked him with bombs at the exit of the Paris Opera.
However, this phenomenon that seems to be currency the world, in Argentina, for some reason or for another, has not so present. In the following article, we will analyze the episodes of attempts of magnicides in our country.
Sunday Faustino Sarmiento
The first episode of a magnicide attempt at a former president of the Argentine Republic took place in 1873, and went to Domingo Faustino Sarmiento. While the president crossed the current streets Maipú and Corrientes in his carriage, three men shook over the presidential car and fired their traffic. The attack was not successful, as one of the sicars took over his gun with too much gunpowder, causing the gun to explode in his hand and save the president's life.
The maleantes were detained and investigated, launching that whoever hired them was López Jordão, who in turn had hired Seaburgo to take charge of the organization. In exchange for carrying out the attack, Seaburg had promised the perpetrators 10,000 pesos and that they would be released instantly from the jurisdiction of the Argentine judicial power; in preparation for this, they had built a ship in the port that would lead them to Montevideo.
Why would López Jordão assassinate Sarmiento? LÃ3pez Jordão had been a real nightmare throughout the presidency of Sarmiento, and was responsible for several surveys that looked at peace in the province of between rivers. Sarmento had finished each of them and increasingly consolidated his power. So López Jordão saw as the only alternative to change the course of history and especially the 1874 elections, a murder of that caliber.
Julio Argentino
The next case we found is that of Julio Argentino Roca as he served as president. When the president left Congress, after the inauguration of the twenty-fourth session of the National Congress, he was expecting him, as usual, a crowd at the door.
However, this time, a person would point out among all, and raised a stone of considerable size would throw against the sien of the president, who after a few seconds of convalence would stand up and walk with normality. The attacker was then identified as Ignacio Montes, a 36-year-old corretin. Monks said he wanted the president dead because he blamed him for the country's political crisis, which had lasted more than a year.
Anarchism
During the first fortnight of the 20th century, the attempts of magnicide became more common, i.e. because immigration brought several new ideals of Europe, among them, anarchism, a left chain with violent tendencies, which used terror as a way of sending a political message.
In these years, two presidents witnessed an attack on their person. These were Manuel Quintana and Victorino of the Square in 1914, both during his term. The two attentive to these presidents were held with revolvers and both failed. While the shooting that was intended for Manuel Quintana was not fired due to the intense rain of this moment, the aim of the Victorino de Plaza, deviated and ended in a column aledaña.
HipólitoYrigoyen
The following episode was the assassination attempt of Hipólito Yrigoyen. After a year of having taken over the presidency, while heading to the Government House since its home in Brazil street, its car was shot 5 times. The perpetrator was then shot down by Hipólito Yrigoyen. Only the head of custody of Yrigoyen was injured.
Juan Domingo Perón
The next magnicide attempt was Juan Domingo Masn, who received two attacks in less than 3 years. The first of them during a speech in 1953, in an act of organized by the CGT, to support the government despite being in a serious economic and inflationary crisis. While General Perón pronounced his speech, two bombings interrupted the president. There were five dead and over 90 wounded. After the boom, Perón would urge the public to retaliate against the attacker, leading to a spiral of violence, which would end the burning of the Jockey Club.
On July 16, 1955, in the framework of the coup that would overthrow the second government of Juan Domingo Perón, several planes bombed Plaza de Mayo with the sole purpose of trying to assassinate the leader of the justice party. Due to political tensions with the Army and the Church, Perón had already suffered several coup attempts. However, none with the planning and virulence of this coup, which sought to create a climate of terror that discourages any kind of popular resistance. Thus officers of the armed, armed civilians and opposition leaders along with the support of air force pilots pitched against Plaza de Mayo. More than 300 people died that day, but the goal of the attack managed to escape unharmed. However, his government would eventually be overthrown only 3 months later.
Raúl Alfonsín
The last attack on an Argentine president before the events last week was for Raúl Alfonsín. The former president of the Republic was in an act of campaign in St. Nicholas after having had to give power early due to the economic crisis. The man who tried to kill him was Ishmael Darío Abdallah. The same is true 5 meters from the stage where Alfonsín was and with a revolver shot the political figure.
However, despite the banging, the gun failed thanks to which the drum went on. Which gave time to his bodyguard to protect Alfonsín. The former president, once the noise was calibrated, grabbed the microphone and proceeded with his speech. Abdallah was detained, brought to trial, declared innocent by reason of mental dementia and then admitted to a psychiatric hospital. He was released later.
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