BRAZEN SHOOTING NEAR CONGRESS SHOCKS NATION

ONE DEATH, LAWMAKER SHOT AND INJURED, SIX ARRESTS – PAGES 4 & 5

Politicians from across the political spectrum rushed to condemn the shooting of La Rioja Radical deputy Héctor Olivares and La Rioja public works official Miguel Marcelo Yadón on Thursday.

Apart from deploring the attack, various politicians also demanded clarification of the incident since shots were fired from a car with no sign of robbery as the motive.

President Mauricio Macri called for the attack to be probed “to the utmost” (with his words repeated by City Mayor Horacio Rodríguez Larreta) while Security Minister Patricia Bullrich revealed at a press conference later that day that there was every indication that Yadón was the target and that it was no accident that he was the fatality.

Among the first to repudiate the attack was the National Committee of the UCR Radical party represented by Olivares in Congress, calling the attack “inadmissible in a democratic country” and demanding “immediate clarification.”

La Rioja Peronist Governor Sergio Casas also expressed his solidarity and sympathy with the families of both shooting victims while Mendoza Radical Governor Alfredo Cornejo said that it was “terrible” that such things could happen in a democracy.

Along similar lines Senate Federal Peronist

caucus leader Miguel Angel Pichetto said that the attack “stirs the ghosts of Argentina’s darkest hours,” linking the attack to other recent events which he did not specify.

Renewal Front deputy Facundo Moyano tweeted: “There can be no impunity” in also calling for rapid clarification. Fellow-deputy Martín Lousteau (Evolution-City) similarly expressed “absolute” repudiation of “this violence counter to democratic practice,” extending his condolences to Yadón’s family and his wishes for a speedy recovery of Olivares.”

The Lower House Speaker’s office expressed “consternation over the brutal attack,” placing itself at the “entire disposal” of the deputy’s family and of the courts to clear up the crime, also mourning Yadón’s death.

The Victory Front and the Justicialist Party chimed in with a communiqué demanding “immediate clarification,” a call echoed later in the day by Senator Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

One atypical comment on the attack came from picket leader Luis D’Elía, who from jail ventured the theory that it was all the work of President Macri’s intelligence services, in order to take away centre stage from Cristina Fernández de Kirchner’s book launch at the other end of the same day.