Faced with one of the biggest crises of her presidency, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez has given her countrymen a confusing and sometimes contradictory view of how her most damaging accuser was found dead, at first seeming to accept the idea of suicide and later describing it as an elaborate murder plot to undermine her government.
Fernandez’s response to what reads like a whodunit movie script — prosecutor Alberto Nisman is found dead with a bullet in his head hours before he was set to elaborate on explosive allegations against Fernandez — has deepened a political crisis with wide implications for the last year of her presidency and perhaps even for the future of the country beyond that.
For the first time in her presidency, Fernandez appears to have lost control.
“It’s possibly the most difficult moment politically that (the ruling party) has had during its decade in power,” said Rosendo Fraga, a political consultant with the Nueva Mayoria think tank. “Cristina’s last year in power is not going to be easy.”
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Fernandez, 61, stands out in a long tradition of charismatic Argentine presidents who have ruled with populist policies and fiery rhetoric. She is the first directly elected female president, winning the 2007 elections to take over from her predecessor and husband, Nestor Kirchner, who died of a heart attack in 2010. Fernandez won a second term the following year.
Both Kirchner and Fernandez have enjoyed wide backing from the poorer classes, a nucleus of support that will likely continue, at least for now.
“What happened to Nisman doesn’t have anything to do with the government,” said Luis Perez, a 52-year-old newsstand manager, who leaned toward government suggestions of a conspiracy. “We have to look at other political parties that wanted to damage the president.”
Associated Press writer Almudena Calatrava contributed to this report.
