Argentina's President Javier Milei has blamed the "international left" after an assassination attempt Saturday targeting former US president Donald Trump.
"The desperation of the international left, which today sees its nefarious ideology expiring, is not surprising, and is ready to destabilise democracies and promote violence to screw itself to power.
"In panic of losing at the polls, they resort to terrorism to impose their backward and authoritarian agenda," the ultra-liberal president wrote on the X social network.
Trump said he was shot in the right ear after being rushed off stage during a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, and expressed condolences to the family of the deceased person. The US Secret Service said the shooter was also killed and two spectators were “critically injured.”
Milei said Trump had been the target of a “cowardly assassination attempt” and offered his support and solidarity in the post on X.
"I hope for President Trump's speedy recovery and that the elections in the United States are conducted in a fair, peaceful and democratic manner," he added.
In an official statement issued by the President's Office earlier, Argentina's government said Milei expressed "his most energetic repudiation of the assassination attempt against former President and presidential candidate Donald Trump."
"The Argentine Republic reaffirms its unwavering commitment to the defence of freedom, democracy and Western values, and calls on the international community to strongly condemn this attack and join in the fight against the enemies of freedom," it concluded.
LatAm leaders react
Leaders across Latin America reacted to the assassination attempt with widespread condemnation.
Brazil's President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva said the shooting "must be strongly condemned by all defenders of democracy and political dialogue."
Chilean President Gabriel Boric expressed his "unqualified condemnation" of the shooting.
"Violence is a threat to democracies and weakens our life together. We must all reject it," said Boric.
Colombia expressed its "solidarity with the United States at this difficult time."
"As a country that has suffered from violence, we reaffirm that it has no place in the political and electoral debate," the government said.
In Bolivia, President Luis Arce said "despite our deep ideological and political differences, violence, wherever it comes from, must always be rejected by everyone."
Mexico's President Andrés Manuel López Obrador condemned the shooting, saying, "Violence is irrational and inhumane."
– TIMES/AFP
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