A former government worker who threw a glass bottle that almost struck Argentina President Javier Milei while he was riding aboard a convertible on his way to the presidential palace has been arrested.
Gastón Mercanzini, 51, was handcuffed outside the Buenos Aires offices of Cronica TV news outlet on Tuesday morning.
Mercanzini, who previously worked for the culture ministry in the central province of Entre Ríos, was remorseful as cops took him into custody.
‘I ask for forgiveness. I didn’t want to hurt anyone,’ he told police officers.
Gastón Mercanzini was arrested Tuesday outside the offices of Cronica TV in Buenos Aires, just two days after he threw a bottle at Argentine President Javier Milei
Milei greets the crowd from a balcony at Casa Rosada, the presidential palace in Buenos Aires
Buenos Aires authorities had been searching for Mercanzini after he was seen on a surveillance video hurling the container that nearly hit Milei in the head before it struck deputy commissioner Guillermo Armentano on Sunday.
Armentano, who is part of the Federal Police’s presidential custody unit, was taken to the presidential palace, where he received medical treatment for a cut to his left ear.
Mercanzini showed up at the Cronica TV headquarters seeking to apologize for his behavior.
Ministry of Security sources told La Nación newspaper that cops in the area were immediately alerted and made their way to the Cronica TV building, where they arrested Mercanzini without incident.
‘After receiving a call from a Crónica journalist, we checked the information and sent, in an articulated manner, investigations detectives who joined the city police personnel to prevent the suspect from escaping,’ an Argentine Federal Police source told La Nación.
Mercanzini visited the headquarters of two media outlets to apologize for the bottle throwing incident before he was arrested Tuesday morning
Milei was waving at supporters when he was nearly struck by a glass bottle that hit one of the law enforcement agents assigned to his security detail
Before attempting to land a sit down with Cronica TV, Mercanzini had also approached the offices of Radio 10 for a chance to apologize for the bottle-throwing incident.
Mercanzini was also arrested in July after he smashed a car’s door with a metal pipe for attacking a police vehicle. He was arrested on an aggravated damage charge in that case.
In August, he was arrested for contempt of court and for civil disobedience.
Law enforcement sources told La Nación that Mercanzini could be face ‘attempted manslaughter charges’ while others think he could be charged with attempted assault for throwing the bottle at President Milei.
Mercanzini had previously worked as the Secretary of Culture in Concepción de Uruguay, a municipality in the central province of Entre Ríos, 198 miles north of Buenos Aires.
However, he was removed from the post in 2013 after he took a leave of absence ‘for personal problems,’ La Nación newspaper reported.
Mercanzini was a follower of the left-leaning Peronism movement based on the ideas of former President Juan Perón, who ruled from 1946 until 1955, when he was overthrown, and again from 1973 until he died in 1974.