Failed attack by Prime Minister Robert Fico recalls other similar events

The assassination attempt on the Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, who is in serious condition after being shot several times in Handlova, brings to mind other cases of failed attacks against government leaders.

In the recent history of failed assassinations, the attack against US President Ronald Reagan in March 1981 stands out. Reagan, who was 70 years old at the time and had only been in the White House for 70 days, was shot in the chest by John Hinckley’s gun outside a hotel in Washington. The president recovered physically but his press chief, James Brady, died in that action.

That same year, Pope John Paul II was shot and wounded in St. Peter’s Square by Turkish Mehmet Ali Agca. John Paul II recovered physically and Agca was sentenced to life imprisonment. Later, the Pope himself forgave him and Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi granted him a pardon.

In 1984, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher was physically unharmed but stunned in the bomb attack that the terrorist group IRA carried out at the hotel in Brighton, United Kingdom, where she was staying to attend the annual conference of the Conservative Party. In the attack, five people died and 31 were injured.

The candidate for the Presidency of the Government of Spain, José María Aznar, suffered an attack on his vehicle with a car bomb by the terrorist group ETA in 1995. Despite the seriousness of the attack, Aznar only had a shock thanks to security of your vehicle. In that attack, a citizen lost her life due to the explosion.

The first democratically elected president of Guinea Conakry, Alpha Conde, survived an attack on his official residence in 2011. Suspicion fell on a sector of the army unhappy with the new president. Days later, a former military leader and thirty soldiers were arrested on charges of attempted assassination.

In September 2018, the then candidate for the Presidency of Brazil Jair Bolsonaro was stabbed at a campaign event in Juiz de Fora, in Minas Gerais. Despite the severity of his injuries and the great loss of blood, he managed to survive if Well, those injuries caused several health crises during his subsequent government.

The former president of Colombia, Iván Duque, emerged unscathed from the attack he suffered while traveling by helicopter to Cúcuta, on the border with Venezuela, in June 2021. The device was hit by at least six large-caliber bullets that, finally, It did not prevent him from landing and the president could be evacuated.

The following November, an assassination attempt was made on Iraq’s Prime Minister Mustafa Al Kadhimi. Several drones loaded with explosives attacked his residence and six people were injured.

The Prime Minister of Haiti, Ariel Henry, was unharmed in an attack in January 2022 in the town of Gonaives, during an event commemorating the independence of the Caribbean country. Armed men tried to kill him by attacking his convoy.

In September 2022, the vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, was the target of a failed attack near her home in Buenos Aires by the Brazilian Fernando André Sabag Montiel. He pointed it at him and shot him with a gun twice, but the gun didn’t work. The vice president saved her life and, as she later stated, she did not notice the attack until she returned to her home.

Former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan experienced an assassination attempt in November 2022 when he was shot in the leg while giving a speech in the town of Wazirabad. In that action, one person died and eight others were injured.

In April 2023, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida was unharmed in a smoke bomb attack thrown by a man shortly before giving a speech in the town of Wakayama, in the west of the country.