INTERVIEW | "Polarization and the abundance of weapons create a very dangerous environment for American democracy," says the executive director of AthenaLab in El Mercurio

Regarding the attack on former Republican President Donald J. Trump on Saturday during a campaign event in Butler, Pennsylvania, the executive director of AthenaLab, Juan Pablo Toro, told El Mercurio that the attack will positively impact the candidate’s chances of returning to the White House. He also criticized a failure of the United States Secret Service, noting that the existing climate of polarization increased the likelihood of armed incidents like the one that occurred.

“I believe it can help his popularity. The image of him raising his fist after being injured is very powerful and flooded the media. In contrast to a president questioned about his health (Joe Biden), here appears a resilient candidate. The timing also favors him, as the incident occurred just before the Republican Party nomination. In some ways, we can cite what happened with (Jair) Bolsonaro in his campaign. The only thing Trump cannot exploit is the political motive of supposed ‘perverse’ enemies due to the background of the assailant. There are no ‘bad hombres’ from Mexican cartels, nor jihadists, nor antifascist groups. Rather, it is someone who takes advantage of the freedom that exists for a civilian to purchase an AR-15 rifle,” the director stated in Monday’s edition.

Regarding the failure of those protecting Trump, Toro recalled that “the consulting firm Eurasia Group in its annual report for 2024 warned for the first time that the greatest global risk this year was a violent act in the U.S. electoral campaign” and the existence of other official documents warning about domestic terrorism. “The context of polarization, combined with a campaign where verbal attacks and false assertions have prevailed, especially from Trump’s side, along with the abundance of weapons, create a very dangerous and toxic environment for American democracy. This condemnable attack is a demonstration of that and, of course, it is not an isolated incident, as it occurs in a sequence of events that include the assault on the Capitol. For all these reasons, the Secret Service will need to strengthen its measures in light of the climate of tension that the calls for calm from the Biden administration have failed to alleviate and better protect the candidates.”

The assassination attempt against Trump recalls other acts of political violence in America where there have been murders of candidates and completed assassinations, the executive director added. The most recent violent act occurred in 2023, when an armed command shot and killed Ecuadorian presidential candidate Fernando Villavicencio as he was leaving a campaign rally, while in 2016, then-presidential candidate Jair Bolsonaro was also stabbed during a campaign event. “Apart from Bolsonaro, there are many campaigns with presidential candidates attacked or injured,” Toro stated, including “(Álvaro) Uribe, (Luis Carlos) Galán, (Carlos) Pizarro, and (Bernardo) Jaramillo in Colombia; the candidate from Ecuador; and (Luis Donaldo) Colosio in Mexico…” the PRI candidate, who was shot and killed in 1994.

AthenaLab Team

August 15, 2024

Photo: France Presse