A shooting outside Argentina’s National Congress Thursday morning left lawmaker Hector Olivares injured and his adviser, Miguel Yadon, dead, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich said, describing the incident as a “mafia-style” attack.
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Just a block from the federal building in Buenos Aires, two gunmen opened fire at the pair at approximately 7:00 am local time, killing Yadon at the scene and leaving the official in “serious condition,” surveillance videos show.
According to footage, two people emerged from a nearby parked car and remained at the scene for a few moments before driving away. Authorities later located the car, Bullrich said.
“There is progress in the investigation. We believe the target was Yadon, and they didn’t want to kill [Olivares],” she said at a press conference.
The attack is believed to have been premeditated, but police are still unsure if the motive was political or personal.
Olivares, 61, is from the northern province of La Rioja and president of the Radical Civic Union (UCR). Yadon, 58, was a businessman and the coordinator of La Rioja’s Electricity Transportation Trust Fund.
The Chamber of Deputies, one of the two chambers of Argentina’s Congress and of which Olivares is a member, condemned the “brutal attack” in a statement Thursday.
“We are going to go to great lengths to understand what happened and find the culprits,” President Mauricio Macri said in a brief televised statement after the attack.