PARIS — Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner instructed her Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman, who happened to be in Paris this past weekend, to skip Sunday’s march to honor the victims of last week’s terror attacks, Buenos Aires daily Clarín reports.
The march, which followed the deadly Jan. 7 attack on the Paris-based satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo, and two subsequent attacks in the French capital, was attended by dozens of leaders and even monarchs. French authorities invited Timerman, who was passing through Paris to visit his daughter on his way back from a diplomatic mission in China. But the foreign minister was told not to attend after ringing Buenos Aires. It was not immediately clear why.
The embassy refused to comment when contacted by Clarín“s correspondent in Paris, María Laura Avignolo; she says that the ambassador, María del Carmen Squeff, habitually qualifies the daily — which is critical of the Kirchner government and herself — as “the enemy.”
Timerman, an Argentine Jew, signed a condolence book on Jan. 10, but did not atttend a ceremony at the Paris Synagogue to honor four people shot dead in Friday’s attack on a kosher supermarket.
The daily observed Kirchner had yet to comment on the attacks either on television or on Twitter “as she usually does.”
The United States has been criticized by Americans after failing to send a top official to the march, which was attended by leaders of UK, Germany, Spain, Italy and several other top dignitaries.
Photo: Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman — Source: Facebook page
