“I am alive for God and for the Virgin”

(CNN Spanish) — The vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, spoke this Thursday in the Senate, in her first public statements after the attack against her that occurred on September 1.

“I wanted my first public activity, outside of my office, to be with you. I really feel that I am alive for God and for the Virgin,” said the former president during the meeting with popular Catholic religious leaders.

Two weeks after the assassination attempt, Kirchner also revealed details of a conversation she said she had with Pope Francis.

“Pope Francis called me very early the next day and told me something like ‘acts of hate, acts of hate and violence are always preceded by words and verbs of hate and violence.’ First is the verbal, right? The aggression. And then that climate grows, grows, grows, and finally it occurs, well, I don’t want to talk about it, that day, “he said.

The vice president also referred to the “rupture” of the social agreement that had existed in the country since 1983, the year the last military dictatorship ended.

“The most serious thing is not what could have happened to me, for me the most serious thing was having broken a social agreement that had existed since 1983,” he said.

In her social networks, Cristina Fernández shared a video with his speech and the interventions of the religious who participated.

This Tuesday, sources with access to the file of the investigation of the attack told CNN that a third person was arrested in the case. Fernando Sabag Montiel and his girlfriend, Brenda Uliarte, were already detained.

The third detainee is a friend of Brenda Uliarte, according to that source, who did not offer more details of her identity or if she faces a specific accusation.

Regarding Uliarte, it is being investigated whether he was an accomplice of Fernando Sabag Montiel, the man accused of pointing and triggering a weapon centimeters from Fernández de Kirchner’s face, although no projectile came out.

The two defendants have refused to testify in court, but have reiterated their innocence.