The governor of Buenos Aires Axel Kicillof had an uncomfortable exchange with a journalist in New York after avoiding a question about his position on Israel and the war in Gaza. The situation ended with the governor accusing the reporter of setting a “trap” and members of his team intervening to end the exchange.
The episode occurred during Kicillof's visit to the United States, where on Wednesday he led a conference at the Institute of Latin American Studies at Columbia University. The activity was part of the last day of his tour with leaders of international socialism in New York.
The journalist Silvina Sterin Pensel approached the governor and made a comparison with Kamala Harris's electoral defeat in the United States. She explained that some voter sectors had questioned the Democratic leader for her stance on the war between Israel and Hamas and then directly asked Kicillof about his own position.
“You are sometimes told that you are lukewarm on this issue and I wanted to ask you directly,” the reporter stated, using the term “genocide” during her intervention to refer to Israel's actions in Gaza.
Kicillof initially asked to stop the recording and postpone the response. “Hold on a second, I'll answer you, but wait a second,” he replied while continuing to move around the place. When the journalist insisted, he stated that he had already spoken about the matter previously and added: “I have the press outside, wait a second.”
When Sterin Pensel sought to continue with the inquiry and asked him to express “what comes from your heart,” the governor did not take a position on the issue raised and continued trying, very nervously, to leave the exchange. He even responded with laughter: “I don’t know about the Kamala Harris.”
The discussion continued a few minutes later. In another sequence recorded by the camera, Kicillof is heard questioning the way he had been approached: “No, you can't do that. It's a trap, it's a trap.”
Axel Kicillof clearly escaped nervous and trembling in response to the question.
The journalist insisted that she wanted to ask the governor a question about foreign policy, but a member of his team intervened decisively. “I already heard you, and he says he doesn't want to answer that,” she stated. When the reporter asked why Kicillof could not respond, the answer was direct: “He doesn't want to.”
The episode thus left a concrete political definition on one of the main international conflicts unanswered, despite Kicillof having dedicated part of his presentation at Columbia to analyzing the global geopolitical scenario and "previewing" his positions in his presidential candidacy aspirations.
