Argentinian politician seriously injured in Buenos Aires shooting

An Argentinian politician has been seriously injured and a provincial official killed in one of the most brazen political attacks in the South American country since it returned to democracy in 1983.

Héctor Olivares, the representative of La Rioja province in Argentina’s lower house of congress, was shot at about 7am local time on Thursday near the congressional building in Buenos Aires, officials said. He is being treated for gunshot wounds that pierced his abdomen and affected vital organs.

The dead man was identified by Telam state news agency as Miguel Marcelo Yadón, a coordinator who works in the fiduciary of La Rioja’s federal electric transportation system. Telam said the men, who reportedly were friends since their teenage years, were shot at least six times.

President Mauricio Macri said doctors were trying to save Olivares’s life and he expressed condolences to Yadón’s family. “We’re moved by this attack,” Macri said in a televised address. “We’re praying for Héctor’s life … We will do everything to find out what happened and find out who is guilty of this.”

As Macri spoke, authorities wearing white jumpsuits collected evidence at the crime scene.

Local media initially reported that Yadón and Olivares had been shot from a moving vehicle, but a surveillance video of the shooting released by the security ministry shows a parked car waiting for them. As the men walk by, they are seen being shot at close range. Yadón collapses on the sidewalk, while an injured Olivares tries to get up and holds up his arms as he calls for help.

A man in the driver’s seat then steps out of the car. Another man also steps out and calmly walks away. When a police officer arrives on the scene, the car slowly drives away.

Patricia Bullrich, the security minister, said the shooting confirmed “the presence of mafias in our country”.

She said: “Yadón was killed from a car that was waiting for him. They shoot the main target, which was Yadón; they achieve his murder and having the opportunity to murder Olivares, they decide not to kill him.”

Bullrich said authorities found the car used in the crime and had identified the suspects, but she said the motive had not been confirmed and was being investigated.

Local TV broadcast images on Thursday of federal police officers escorting a man suspected of having links to the attack from his apartment into a police car. His face was covered by a hood, and authorities did not release any further details.

Olivares belongs to the Radical Civic Union party of the ruling government coalition and is also part of the transportation committee in the lower house. Before he was shot, he had been discussing a bill against hooliganism in Argentinian football, which produces some of the world’s best players but is beset by entrenched corruption and violence.

“If it does turn out the judicial investigations show there is a connection to politically motivated violence then we can definitely say that we’re facing a very grave institutional event,” Olivares’s spokesman, Ulises Bencina, said.

Attacks on politicians are unusual in Argentina, a country of about 44 million people. Politicians said the attack was the first of its kind since a brutal seven-year dictatorship from 1976-83, during which thousands were killed, including several politicians.