After criticism, the government will send gendarmes to districts governed by the opposition

07/24/2020 - 14:24

• Clarín.com
• Politics

Finally, after the claim of opposition mayors, the national government confirmed that it will also send gendarmes and other federal forces to prevent the increase in crimes in the Buenos Aires suburbs.

The controversy, which broke out in the last hours, when the Ministry of Security announced the list of eight districts in which the additional troops arranged by the Nation began to be deployed this Friday, had only been overlapped by the fierce internal among the minister Sabina Frederic; and her provincial partner, Sergio Berni. Still, she forced bilateral contacts that unlocked a conflict that promised to escalate. 

Since this Friday, federal forces, from the Gendarmerie and the Prefecture, landed in neighborhoods of Avellaneda, Quilmes, La Matanza, Almirante Brown, Moreno, Esteban Echeverría, Florencio Varela and Lomas de Zamora, all governed by the Front of All. The plan, in principle, foresees a reduced strength: 315 personnel per shift.

In this way, they joined the 31 districts where federal force devices already existed, which, according to the Ministry of National Security, will continue to be active. A figure that graphs the intern between Frederic and Berni has to do with the number of troops present in the Conurbano: the figures they give from each district do not coincide. 

Districts whose mayors belong to Together for Change will be added to this initial device. In principle, from the national government they confirmed Lanús (Néstor Grindetti) and Tres de Febrero (Diego Valenzuela), but more will be added in the next few hours.

It was a quick response to the burning opposition claim that, according to what Clarín could know, before going public first reached the highest national and provincial authorities by formal means. "We argued that it was not a good message for the dialogue promoted by the President and that we support them if they send gendarmes only to them," one of the mayor of Cambodia in Conurbano told Clarín .

The idea of ​​the mayors, whom Alberto Fernández values ​​for their predisposition to dialogue and the effort they make at the intern to differentiate themselves from the JxC hawks, was that a party dispute should not be drawn. That is why, publicly, beyond the anger that transpired underneath, the strategy was to limit the request to a technical need.

In this line, the head of the Cabinet and head of Security of Lanús, Diego Kravetz, spoke who explained that "there is no difference in the complexity" that the warmest neighborhoods of the Conurbano have. "What we alert, after coming to articulate well with the Province and the Nation in most of the issues, is that if the neighboring districts are saturated, the criminal does not go home, but seeks the place where it is easier for him to commit crime, "he reasoned.

Although Lanús has an oiled link with Berni, Kravetz avoided getting into the internal that the minister maintains with Frederic, and only asked that the mayors be "part of the discussion" because of the Security plan.  

Finally, in dialogue with Miter radio, Kravetz revealed that they confirmed to him late on Thursday that "on Monday they would be having troops in Lanús."

Frederic, as Clarín learned, also contacted Valenzuela, to promise to send federal forces.

Equally, for the doubts, from the Nation they were in charge of clarifying that it is Berni who defines the distribution of the troops. "It was determined that the Ministry of Security of the Province of Buenos Aires is the one who decides where the federal forces will go," said Secretary of Security Eduardo Villalba. 

From Gelly and Obes they assure that the federal troops deployed have the mission of carrying out "complementary operations" to the tasks that the Buenos Aires Police usually carry out.

"We will work with links from both portfolios (also in relation to the provincial Ministry of Security) and a daily coordination in the different neighborhoods where the support of the Security Forces is required," they expanded. 

The plan aims to make "a more efficient and focused use of forces in the areas syndicated as conflictive by the Province of Buenos Aires" and also provides for a reinforcement with mobile detachments from the Gendarmerie. 

PDL