The president of Argentina reinforces security in the city of Messi in the face of drug violence: “Rosario needs us”
“I understand that Rosario needs us and I know that its security forces are insufficient to face the solution of the problem,” said this Argentine President Alberto Fernández announced Tuesday a series of measures to “combat organized crime” in the hometown of Leo Messi >. The threat he received the best player in the world, along with the attack on his father-in-law's supermarket, have given Rosario international visibility not wanted by his local authorities or the national government.
A few hours after After that intimidation, last Saturday an 11-year-old boy was murdered during a shootout between drug gangs on the humble outskirts of the city. The fact provoked The fury of the neighbors abated, who demolished three houses designated as drug sales places. The owner of one of those houses was arrested. Fernández has spoken amid the impact of this new crime. “The events and images of the last few days show how far they are capable of going with their illicit purposes. We are making forceful decisions,” he said. said the president, and he has assured that he will not tremble in the future. the pulse to “dismantle the criminal organizations”.
The drama of insecurity in the third city of this country began early in the year. to be glimpsed more than a decade ago. Rosario's mayors have been powerless witnesses to the growth of groups that feed on young unemployed. Fernández has recognized that “despite the efforts made” to deal with the social and humanitarian burden “the expected results” have not been achieved. Criminal gangs, he remarked, “do not develop from one day to the next, it takes time to seize territories, recruit hit men, co-opt wills in the security force, justice and also in politics, which it is what guarantees its development, its expansion and fundamentally its impunity”.
We are facing a real, complex problem that involves crimes of different scales and types, which is why we face this fight with the determination and conviction it requires. We work in a coordinated manner for federal, preventive and comprehensive security for everyone.
— Alberto Fernández (@alferdez) March 7, 2023
Some measures
The president has ordered the mobilization of federal forces in the city located some 400 kilometers north of the Argentine capital to, in this way, “put the authority of the State at the center of the scene” and “restore Rosario to her community life.” In turn, Fernández has ordered the Argentine Army through its Company of Engineers to participate in the urbanization of popular neighborhoods “accelerating tasks pending execution.” ;n that they are very necessary”. And he added: “they are the Armed Forces of our democracy and in the same exemplary way with which they acted in the pandemic and in the fires, they will now go with the same honesty, skill and conviction to help a citizenry who needs them”. The right-wing opposition demands This led to the military becoming directly involved in the fight against drug trafficking.Specialists warn that this experience failed resoundingly and laceratingly in Mexico, and that this is not the path to follow.
The threat against Messi, whose authorship and intent are still unclear, turned the security problem in Rosario into a burning issue that, it is estimated, will contaminate the electoral campaign with a view to the general elections of October “The manipulation of information for the purpose of wearing down the institution and the political game that some play to take advantage of this situation only deserve the r democratic pudio”, said Fernández.
