Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner Stirs Controversy Over Alleged Comments About United States
Political attack ads in the U.S. often claim that a political opponent isn't in touch with reality. If this is true in Argentina, President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner's opponents just got some ammunition.
The Argentine president gave a televised address on Tuesday in which she claimed that the U.S. government may be plotting to overthrow her government and may even be planning to kill her, according to a report from The Guardian.
"If something should happen to me, don't look to the Middle East, look to the North," Fernández said during the address. During the speech, she spoke about an alleged plot against her by local bankers and businessmen "with foreign help".
Her statement about looking to the north allegedly is a reference to the U.S., with whom Argentina's relationship has faltered after the latter's recent default on its debt.
In the past, Fernandez has said she received death threats from Islamic State militants because of her friendship with the Argentine Pope Francis. But in Tuesday's speech she claimed that Argentine security officials had received three threatening emails from the U.S.
Argentina recently rejected paying $1.3 billion to an investment bank in the U.S. after a New York judge ruled that the country pay that sum, which dates back to the 2001 Argentine default, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"I'm not naive, this is not an isolated move by a senile judge in New York," Fernández said in her address. "Because vultures look a lot like the eagles of empires," in reference the the bald eagle, a U.S. symbol.
Fernandez is in her second term as Argentina's president and isn't eligible for reelection in 2015, but that has not stopped political rivals from taking shots at her.
"Since she doesn't resist reality, with unemployment, high inflation, the rising dollar, she says it's no longer (the Islamic State) trying to kill her, but the U.S.," said Elisa Carrió, a presidential hopeful in 2015. "She's inventing conspiracies."
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