BUENOS AIRES — Argentina’s government on Wednesday cast greater suspicion on an aide to Alberto Nisman, the prosecutor whose mysterious death this month has shaken the country, by describing the aide as an intelligence operative — adding to its assertions that rogue spies were involved in the events around Mr. Nisman’s death.
“This kid’s situation is starting to look worrisome,” Aníbal Fernández, the president’s chief of staff, told reporters here this morning, referring to the aide, Diego Lagomarsino, 35.
Mr. Lagomarsino worked in the prosecutor’s investigative unit as an information technology consultant and lent Mr. Nisman the .22-caliber Bersa pistol used in his death, investigators say.
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Mr. Lagomarsino said last week that Mr. Nisman had asked for the gun after Mr. Stiusso advised the prosecutor to take steps to improve his safety, according to a report in the pro-government newspaper Página 12.
Describing Mrs. Kirchner’s comments about Mr. Lagomarsino as a diversionary tactic, Jorge Knoblovits, a prominent Jewish leader, called her speech on Monday “out of proportion and McCarthyist,” a reference to the practice of making accusations of subversion employed in the 1950s by the American senator Joseph R. McCarthy against suspected Communists.
Jonathan Gilbert reported from Buenos Aires, and Simon Romero from Rio de Janeiro.
