Buenos Aires - Argentina's military and
federal police scrambled to deal with a bomb threat made against
the presidential palace in Buenos Aires while President Mauricio
Macri was there on Monday, just hours after a man was arrested
trying to enter the building with a gun, an official with the
presidential press team said.
The threat against Casa Rosada was made via a phone call in
which a person indicated a plan to put a bomb inside a car, the
office of Argentina's Secretary General confirmed to Reuters.
The military activated its protocol for such threats, and a
team was dispatched to check and secure the entrances of Casa
Rosada, the presidential palace and seat of national government.
No car containing explosives was found, and the building was not
evacuated.
"There is no possibility of a bomb entering without
detecting it," an official from the office of the secretary
general said.
Local media reported that another threat was made against a
congressional office and a response team was also on the scene
there.
The bomb threat followed the arrest of a man carrying a gun
who claimed to have a meeting with Macri, his office said in a
separate statement. The city has faced false bomb threats
before, including ahead of a meeting of the Group of 20 nations
there last year.
Security personnel said Francisco Ariel Muniz, 36, had tried
to enter the building with a .44 Magnum Taurus revolver inside
his briefcase and told officials he was there for an appointment
with center-right leader Macri.
After officials confirmed that no such meeting was
scheduled, he tried to leave the briefcase behind. The statement
said Muniz was detained by security personnel. Security Minister
Patricia Bullrich tweeted that the gun was not loaded.
Macri, who came into office in 2015, will seek re-election
in October in what is likely to be a closely fought battle. He
has been falling in opinion polls amid high inflation and a
tumbling peso that has hurt voters in the recession-hit nation.
An attack outside Argentina's Congress last week led to the
deaths of a senior lawmaker and an aide, though local officials
and media have indicated the motive behind the "mafia-style"
shooting was personal rather than political.