On January 18, late on a Sunday night, Argentine federal prosecutor Alberto Nisman was found dead in his luxury high-rise apartment in the nouveau riche Puerto Madero neighborhood of Buenos Aires. The police have stated that the cause of death was almost certainly suicide, though they are still investigating it as a “suspicious death.” Speculation has been raging as to what would cause a prosecutor to commit suicide at the climax of his life’s work.

The Kirchner administration, its increasingly fortified right-wing opposition, and the general public are not in a credulous mood. One sign at the following night’s rally at the Plaza de Mayo, attended largely by well-heeled but red-faced representatives of the Buenos Aires professional classes, read: “no pueden ‘suicidarnos’ a todos” (they can’t “suicide” us all).

In an open letter posted to Facebook and Twitter, Kirchner eschewed a head of state’s usual politesse in the face of tragedy and scandal. Instead, she alluded to a conspiracy against her government involving a litany of state and corporate actors, including former President Carlos Menem, an ex-director of the Secretaría de Inteligencia (SI), a counterterrorist operator in the federal police, a powerful judge, and the media conglomerate Clarín.