At 320 Eduardo Jenner Street, from Larrain hill, Valparaisowould have lived, until the age of 18, Fernando Ernesto Montiel Araya (65)father of Fernando Andre Sabag Montiel (35)arrested this Thursday by the Argentine police following pointing a firearm at the vice president of that country, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, who was unharmed.
The incident occurred when the authority entered her home in Buenos Aires -in the Recoleta neighborhood- and hundreds of people were waiting for her on the street. Her followers have been giving her support for a couple of days, in the middle of a corruption trial, where she is accused of fraudulent administration and of having led an illicit association together with former President Néstor Kirchner.
In Sabag’s birth certificate, published by the Argentine media Infobae, it is indicated that his father was born in Valparaiso. According to data available in Dicom, the latter would have residence in the port, like his mother, Maria del Jesus Araya (84)whom her neighbors know as Meri.
Meri – a short, dark-haired widow – remains active. She goes up and down the Larraín hill practically every day. She moves with a cart where she carries clothes that she sells at the fair – probably on Argentina Avenue – and descends a staircase that continues down Jenner’s hill.
This is how the owner of a business located in front of his house sees it. The man says that Meri has never bought anything from him, but that he sees her every day when she returns and gets off the bus, which stops at Juan Espejo street. He also says that he always sees her alone. She was never accompanied by any son or grandson.
Another neighbor says that Meri is taken on weekends by one of her children who lives in the interior -Quilpué or Villa Alemana-. She that she sometimes she has warned that she is leaving for three days. Another resident adds that Meri has more children, who live abroad, but she does not provide more details.
“She is a very good neighbor, she always asks how you are,” she says.
Meri’s house is yellow, with two floors, attached to two others with the same characteristics. The first floor door and window are barred. In the second, she wears a translucent curtain with floral motifs.
Although a group of journalists waits outside his house, to learn the story of his son and perhaps his grandson, no one answers when you knock on the door. A noise is heard from inside the home, although it might come from the adjoining residence, where a niece of Meri went to leave food at noon.
When consulted, the woman said that her aunt was not at home. And when asked by the reporters, she said that she was late for her work, that “I haven’t even seen the news,” and she disappeared walking quickly down the hill.
The back window of the house of Sabag’s supposed grandmother, yes, was open. She might leave airing, or simply did not want to talk to the press. She probably has little or no contact with her son Fernando Montiel, which was the focus of an investigation for expulsion from Brazil in 2020.
The process occurred due to the “existence of a criminal conviction issued by the Public Justice once morest him,” according to the Brazilian Federal Police.
In Chile, according to Carabineros, Montiel has no criminal record.
Meri, in any case, lives alone. She has always been alone, says another local. She has never been seen with grandchildren or children, more than the one who picks her up some weekends.
From his house you can see the Congress, in the direction of the west. And in the surrounding buildings, condominiums from the 1950s, there are several painted murals. Nearby is the Barón viewpoint and the homes possibly housed the population that worked for EFE or in the former train maestranza, whose vestiges resist the passage of time.