Here are some recent cases of attacks on politicians:

Shinzo Abe, 2022

On July 8, 2022, former Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot while giving a campaign speech in Nara, western Japan. He was shot twice in the neck and was pronounced dead hours later.

His alleged assassin, who was arrested immediately after the incident, cited Abe's alleged ties to the Unification Church, also known as the "Moonies," which has been accused of exerting undue financial pressure on its followers in Japan.

Abe, who came from a political dynasty, served as prime minister from 2006 to 2007 and again from 2012 to 2020.

Cristina Kirchner, 2022

On September 1, 2022, a man pointed a gun at the head of Argentina's then-Vice President Cristina Kirchner as she greeted supporters outside her home in Buenos Aires, but the gun did not fire.

The attacker, who is now in custody, said his motive for the attack was "the situation in the country."

Kirchner's supporters, however, have suggested that the attack was part of a larger plot and that there were other instigators.

Kirchner, a former president (2007-2015) who was sentenced in late 2022 to six years in prison and banned from holding office on corruption charges, has alleged that the assassination attempt was privately financed and "identified with the government" of her predecessor, the center-right Mauricio Macri (2015-2019).

Imran Khan, 2022

In November of the same year, former Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan was shot in the leg as his convoy traveled through a crowded street in Wazirabad, in eastern Pakistan.

The gunman, in a "confession" video released by police, said he acted because he believed Khan was anti-Islam.

Jovenel Moïse, 2021

Haitian President Jovenel Moïse was shot and killed in the early hours of July 7, 2021, at his private residence in Port-au-Prince by a hit squad of 28 men who posed as agents of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

Three of the attackers were killed and about 20 people, including 18 former Colombian soldiers, were arrested. A U.S. investigation revealed that two men who ran a security company in Miami had planned to kidnap Moïse and replace him with a Haitian-American.

Jair Bolsonaro, 2018

Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil's far-right former president (2019-2022), was stabbed in the abdomen by a mentally ill man in September 2018 and was seriously injured during a campaign rally in the southeastern state of Minas Gerais, during the campaign that would take him to the presidency.

He has since undergone several surgeries to repair the damage from the attack.

In 2023, he was ruled ineligible to run for office until 2030 for baselessly casting doubt on the reliability of the electronic voting system used in the 2022 presidential election, which he lost to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.

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