Drug violence takes all eyes in our country. And it is within this framework that the Army has already landed in Rosario, together with the reinforcement of federal agents, in a scene of blood and death that shocks and worries. A scenario in which, according to what Rosario’s attorney general, María Eugenia Iribarren, said today, “there is police complicity with drug trafficking.”
After the presence of the Minister of Security of the Nation, Aníbal Fernández, this morning in the city of Santa Fe (https://www.eldia.com/nota/2023-3-8-9-18-0-violencia-narco-anibal-fernandez-va-a-rosario-y-junto-a-perotti-pone-en- march-the-announced-measures-politics-and-economy), his Defense counterpart, Jorge Taiana, clarified that the members of the General Directorate of Engineers and Infrastructure will go unarmed, while the number of members of that Force that will be in the streets was not specified. He also confirmed that security must be provided by the Federal Forces and the Santa Fe police, and that to achieve success in this operation, the intervention should be “integrative.”
In this sense, he explained that the Army will be accompanied by other State agencies, such as the Ministries of Social Development and Health. The intention is to replicate the socio-sanitary operations carried out every year, for example, by the Argentine Navy. Taiana specified that “the objective is to improve the living conditions of the inhabitants (of Rosario)”, in the midst of the fight against drug trafficking that does not stop taking lives.
In this “urbanization” plan of the settlements, it was not detailed which are the streets and neighborhoods that will be paved and that it will be the Rosario municipality, in charge of Pablo Lautaro Javkin, which will set the priorities. From this, the number of troops that will arrive at the place and the equipment to be used will be established.
On the other hand, within this framework, Rosario’s attorney general, María Eugenia Iribarren, assured today that “there are cases of police complicity with drug trafficking,” referring to the situation in that city and other towns in the southern province, where in In recent days, an 11-year-old boy was shot to death and two members of the force were also arrested on suspicion of being part of the “Los Monos” narcocriminal gang.
In statements to the Rosario station LT8, Iribarren warned that this complicity “is a degradation that has been taking place for years.” In the same sense, and when analyzing the arrival of more federal forces to act in the “hot” neighborhoods of the city of Rosario, he expressed: “No Rosario cannot be denied the perception that there are no police on the streets “. However, he stressed that on a daily basis they come across “lack of police personnel in the judicial function, the police who carry out investigations” which “will not be covered with the arrival of more federal forces to collaborate in this prevention task.”
“We are going through a crisis situation and unfortunately there is no turning point where we can see some kind of reaction or measure to reverse it. These are situations that have been entrenched for years and that we are not going to change from one day to the next. “The official continued.
In this order, the prosecutor explained that “there is a real awareness of the problem and of the seriousness and dimension, but until there is a general awareness of the corresponding levels of the State that this has to change, it will not happen “. Asked about the crime of Máximo Gerez, the boy murdered last Sunday in a shootout in the “Los Pumitas” neighborhood of Empalme Graneros, in which three other boys were also injured and led to a neighborhood attack against houses where bunkers were operating drugs, the prosecutor maintained that “this type of situation occurs due to police complicity. We cannot be hypocritical and deny it, but it is a degradation that we have been seeing for years.”
“It is very difficult to reach a senior police chief because we have to investigate with the police. Investigating without it is much more difficult,” added Iribarren, who said that it is necessary “to think about how to rethink the police, because there are a lot of police who work well and wants something different for strength”. “Today the problem is in Rosario, it is necessary to inject all the resources so that the problem decreases and there are more police in the investigation, and also add to prevention,” he added.
Finally, referring to projects to carry out reforms in the penal system sent by Governor Omar Perotti to the Legislature, the head of the prosecutors said that “when it comes to making more restrictive measures -with the application of preventive detention- you have to think that these measures imply a greater number of detainees, which implies a greater and lesser possibility of control in prisons”.
“What I am not listening to is that they talk about what is going to be done with the prisoners in the province, because the prisoners are not a problem only of the Federal Justice or the Penitentiary Service. Here we have serious problems in (prisons) of Coronda or Piñero and that is what affects the city. If you are only thinking of a reaction that involves more prisoners, it is not the solution either,” he concluded.
