Yesterday’s shooting Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico has shaken the world, recalling dark moments in history when world leaders were targeted by assassins. One of the most dramatic, and recent, episodes is the murder of Shinzo Abe, former Japanese Prime Minister, who was shot in the middle of the street during a campaign event. However, it is not the only case. In 2022, the former vice president of Argentina, Cristina Fernández de Kirchnerwas almost the victim of an attempted murder when a man pointed a gun at her, but the gun jammed, saving her life.

These events bring to mind other assassination attempts on world leaders. In 2021, the one who was president of Colombia, Iván Duque, He survived a guerrilla attack that took up to six shots at the helicopter he was traveling in. Meanwhile in Haiti, president Jovenel Moïse He was shot to death in his own home, in an attack carried out by a group of mercenaries. His widow is currently charged with accessory to murder.

History also takes us to Europe, where the most symbolic assassination was that of Olof Palme, Swedish Prime Minister, who was shot twice as he left the cinema with his wife. In the United Kingdom, in 1984, Margaret Thatcher survived an assassination attempt by the IRA at a hotel where a Conservative conference was being held, the British Prime Minister said they had been “very lucky”.

In 1981 at Pope John Paul IThey also tried to assassinate him, four shots rang out in the symbolic St. Peter’s Square. The United States is also not exempt from these tragic events, the most iconic being the murder of John F. Kennedy in 1963, two decades later they tried it with Ronald Reagan in 1981, where only one of the six bullets fired managed to lightly wound him in the chest.