Argentina’s most violent city, Rosario — best known as the birthplace of soccer star Lionel Messi — has seen a spate of murders in recent months, which some say is suspicious.
The authorities boast that this change is the result of the fight against drug-trafficking groups, on the streets and in prisons.
However, others believe that a tacit agreement between the government and organized crime groups may explain the change.
Rosario has an important port on South America’s second longest river after the Amazon — the Parana — which has made it a hub for transporting drugs from Bolivia, Brazil and Paraguay to Europe and Asia.
The city, Argentina’s third largest, has long had a homicide rate nearly five times the national average, with up to 260 murders per year.
Even the families of famous citizens like Messi, or another football player Angel Di Maria have received violent threats or attacks by criminal organizations.
But everything seems to have changed since the end of 2023, when President Javier Milei took office, vowing zero tolerance for crime.
At the same time, the province of Santa Fe, where Rosario is located, received a new governor, Maximiliano Pullaro.
Pullaro soon imposed harsh conditions on prisoners, especially gang leaders, publishing pictures of prison raids and submissive inmates.
His actions earned him as many as 30 death threats in his first months in office and fueled gang tensions, which killed four civilians in March.
Milei then sent federal police and soldiers to Rosario.
– ‘Tacit Agreement’ –
According to a report by the Department of National Security, Rosario’s homicide rate dropped by 62 percent between January and August compared to the same period last year.
“We have the lowest number of homicides in 17 years in Rosario,” said Security Minister Patricia Bullrich.
“We said we would put order in the prisons and order on the streets. And that’s what we did,” added Pullaro, who is accused of emulating the brutal tactics that tortured El Salvador’s popular President Nayib Bukele.
However, experts doubt that these measures alone have led to a rapid decline in homicides.
The former security minister of Santa Fe, Marcelo Sain, who is also a doctor of social sciences, believes that “there was an agreement” between the state and the criminal world in which “the killings stopped.”
“There is no other explanation, because there is no other policy in the world that reduces the number of people killed,” he added.
Ariel Larroude, director of the Criminal Policy Observatory at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA), said the drop in violence is “surprising” because “drug use continues to grow.”
“This may be the result of a dramatic success in crime policy” based on the “restructuring” of police and prisons, he said.
But it is also possible that this is accompanied by “a tacit agreement with gangs to reduce violence, while (the government) ignores the drug trade.”
Larroude said this could simply include the police setting up control on street corners or in certain areas.
On the ground, emotions are mixed.
“We see more police, but everything is still the same,” said Sandra Arce, a 46-year-old mother who runs a soup kitchen in the Boca neighborhood.
“On the street, the situation is still the same — they rob you, they grab your things, they shoot you,” he added.
However, he is happy that the most popular place of the drug store, across the street from his kitchen, has just disappeared.
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