Intrigue envelops Argentine election
Report that prosecutor was murdered and missing activist spark tensions ahead of vote
BUENOS AIRES — Only a few weeks ago, Argentina’s midterm election was shaping up to be a duel over economic policy.
But in the final weeks before the vote, two national mysteries have roiled the race.
The leftist former president, Cristina Fernández, is running for a Senate seat, hoping to make a political comeback by accusing her center-right successor of undoing many of her populist policies in order to benefit the country’s elite.
But the nation’s focus has started to shift, starting with an explosive new twist in the notorious 2015 death of a prosecutor, Alberto Nisman.
Nisman’s body had been found only hours before he was scheduled to provide damning testimony accusing Fernández, then the president, of a cover-up in a terrorism investigation.
Now, a team of forensic experts has issued a report concluding that Nisman had been murdered, according to local news reports.
That determination contradicts the findings of another team of experts during Fernández’s tenure that there was no evidence anyone else was involved in Nisman’s death, meaning that he had probably killed himself.
The saga of the prosecutor has long consumed Argentina, for good reason. He had been in charge of investigating the still-unsolved 1994 bombing of a Jewish community center in Buenos Aires that killed 85 people. He had accused Fernández and members of her government of trying to shield Iranian officials suspected of playing a role in the attack as part of a deal that would supply Iranian oil to Argentina.
Supporters of President Mauricio Macri, whose minority coalition in Congress is expected to pick up seats in the election Oct. 22, say the latest report validates their longtime contention that Nisman was a victim of foul play.
By contrast, allies of Fernández, who has denied any wrongdoing, characterized the new forensic report as an effort by the current government to further undermine her image. Fernández faces charges in several corruption investigations.
But in the run-up to the election, she has a mystery of her own to point to: the disappearance of Santiago Maldonado, an indigenous rights activist who, supporters say, vanished after border guards took him into custody.
The disappearance has outraged many Argentines, and Fernández contends that the government is simply putting forward the new allegations about Nisman’s death to distract attention from the case now unfolding on its watch.
The latest forensic investigation into Nisman’s death was carried out by a team of 28 experts. Over the course of nine months, they reconstructed the scene where his body was found in his bathroom, with a single gunshot wound to the head. They concluded the prosecutor was killed by two people.
The forensic experts said injuries discovered on Nisman’s body — including a nasal fracture, a hematoma in his kidney, lesions on his legs and a wound on the palm of his hand — are consistent with an attack. According to the official, investigators also found ketamine, an anesthetic, in Nisman’s blood, which they suspect was used to sedate him. No gunpowder residue was found on his hands, which they said made the suicide theory implausible.
Two teams of forensic experts had previously said there was no evidence anyone else was in Nisman’s bathroom when he died.
While allies of Macri are focusing on the latest developments involving Nisman, supporters of Fernández have turned the apparent disappearance of Maldonado, 28, into a rallying cry.