'I Am Alive Thanks to God': Argentine VP Cristina Fernandez

On Thursday, Argentine Vice President Cristina Fernandez-Kirchner reappeared in public for the first time after the assassination attempt that took place on Sept. 1, when a right-wing extremist shot her with a semi-automatic pistol.

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"I feel that I am alive thanks to God and the Virgin," she said during a meeting with "Pro-Poor Priests," a group which carries out social protection activities in Argentine shantytowns.

"Pope Francis called me very early the next day... he told me that acts of hate, acts of hate and violence, are always preceded by words and by verbs of hate and violence," she added.

So far, four people have been arrested for an assassination attempt in which a 35-year-old Brazilian citizen, Fernando Sabag Montiel, fired the trigger twice in front of Fernandez-Kirchner's face. The shots, however, did not come out of the gun.

Although the police investigations are kept secret, Argentine media have managed to access information about chats exchanged by the suspects. These messages show what the right-wing conspirators wanted to do as well as their reactions after the failure of the attack.

"The most serious thing is not what could have happened to me. The social agreement that had existed since 1983 was broken," Fernandez-Kirchner said, referring to the date on which Argentina returned to democracy after years of far-right military governments.

"Returning to democracy meant recovering life, rationality, and the possibility of discussing politics by eradicating violence," she explained.

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