The start of 2024 was one of terror in terms of security in the Province of Buenos Aires.
In
34 days there have been 10 crimes committed during robberies
, most of them in the Conurbano.
As the most cruel and painful aspect, in three of them the victims were boys: Uma Aguilera (9), Jennifer Campos (13) and Nicolás Riccardi (16).
The wave of insecurity is well marked: of the ten crimes, nine occurred in the second half of January.
And half of the murders were to steal a car or a motorcycle.
The first fatal victim of insecurity in the Province in 2024 was
Evgeniy Sipatov
(40), a Ukrainian programmer.
Motorcycle jets attacked him on the sidewalk of his house.
The "Russian", who was about to be a father, wanted to prevent them from entering his house and they shot him dead at point-blank range. There are two minors detained.
The second case was the double crime of a father and his son in Zárate, on January 15.
Teodoro Miguel Martínez (59) and Juan Antonio Martínez (29)
, were murdered by two hooded men who entered a farm to rob.
The father saw that they were taking his son hostage and tried to defend him with a .22 carbine.
Teodoro and Juan Antonio died in the shooting.
The assailants took a loot of 300 thousand pesos, the weapon and wallets.
Two suspects were arrested.
Nicolás Riccardi
was 16 years old and was stabbed in the heart in Chascomús.
The crime occurred on January 16, when the boy was walking back from a birthday party with two friends.
Three thieves tried to rob them and they ran away.
A few blocks later they caught up with Nicolás and hit him in the head until he was unconscious.
They grabbed the spoke of a motorcycle wheel
from the floor and stuck it in his chest.
All to steal a backpack in which he only had a diver.
Three suspects, ages 15, 17 and 20, were arrested for the crime.
Nicolás Riccardi (16) had a twin brother.
He was working to raise money for the holidays.
Jennifer
Campos
, 13 years old, was killed during an attack in Virrey del Pino, La Matanza.
The robbers overpowered the girl's father and demanded money.
Her partner, who was in the bathroom, gave them the savings they kept in a shoe box and tried to escape.
The assailants demanded more money, there was a struggle and Jennifer intervened.
They shot her in the chest.
The Peugeot 208 in which the murderers escaped was found in a field and
had already been used in nine entrances
.
The suspects are still being sought.
The fifth victim of insecurity so far this year was
Sebastián Ochoa
(26).
Motochorros killed him when he was leaving work, at a Shell in José C. Paz, on January 20.
They shot him in the chest, stole his motorcycle, wallet and cell phone.
Sebastián was the father of a 7-month-old baby.
There are no arrests in the case.
The crime of
Uma Aguilera
(9) was the one with the greatest impact.
The girl, daughter of one of Patricia Bullrich's custodians and an expert from the Federal Police, was murdered with a shot to the back of the head by four thieves who wanted to steal their car in Villa Centenario, Lomas de Zamora, on January 22. 8.48.
The thieves got out of a Toyota Corolla that they had stolen eight minutes earlier.
Eduardo Aguilera, to protect his daughter, tried to escape.
The attackers shot anyway and killed Uma.
The
Federal Police arrested the four suspects
in different hideouts in San Pedro, Marcos Paz and Alejandro Korn.
Video
Loop.
I followed the coverage on clarin.com.
When the shock of the Uma case had not yet passed,
María Lucrecia Arias
(53) was murdered in front of her 17-year-old daughter when they tried to steal her car in Castelar, Morón, on January 25.
The robbers shot him because the woman's seat belt got stuck.
Of the four assailants, there is only one suspect detained who had Lucrecia's cell phone in his possession.
Maximiliano Rojas
(24) was shot to death in the back by two motorcycle riders who tried to steal his blue Yamaha Crypton in Lanús, on January 27.
A 17-year-old suspect is in prison in the case.
Leonardo Antonio Quinteros, murdered in Merlo when he was about to leave on vacation.
The tenth crime was that of
Leonardo Antonio Quinteros
(49), the owner of a refrigerator who was murdered in Merlo when he was about to leave on vacation, on Wednesday.
The thieves stole his VW Amarok van, which was later found abandoned.
The murderers are at large.
How to measure insecurity
The cases represent a marginal percentage of the number of robberies that occur in the Conurbano every day.
How many were there in January in the Province of Buenos Aires?
It is impossible to know
.
The Buenos Aires Ministry of Security does not have criminal statistics, at least not open to the public or journalism.
In the portfolio they usually repeat that this task is carried out by the Attorney General's Office (Judicial Branch).
The latest data from the Attorney General's Office is from 2022 and reflects judicial information: number of cases initiated and charges.
They are not an x-ray of what crime is like, when, where and with what methods they steal, nor do they serve to measure whether a management is effective in prevention or with arrests, nor to contextualize whether these ten deaths mentioned above are more or less than others years.
CABA, Santa Fe and Córdoba, to mention nearby examples, do have tools such as crime maps and security observatories.
Maximiliano Rojas (24) was murdered to steal his motorcycle in Monte Chingolo, Lanús.
Without recent official statistics, when asked by
Clarín
about whether there is an increase in insecurity in the Province and particularly an increase in violent crime,
the Buenos Aires Ministry of Security did not want to respond.
On the other hand, in the portfolio led by Javier Alonso, they say: “
The Police of the Province of Buenos Aires is among the best in the world.
The resolution of the most gruesome events and all the bloody events are resolved between 24 and 48 hours.”
Video
The former Minister of Security and current provincial senator made these statements in the Duro de Tamar program on C5N, one day after the Uma Aguilera case, murdered in a robbery.
The former Buenos Aires Security Minister and current provincial senator
Sergio Berni
said something similar,
one day after Uma's crime
, on the program
Duro de Tamar
(
C5N
): “If there is something that the Police of the Province of Buenos Aires has, it is that It is the only police force in the world that has more than 80% of its homicide cases solved in the first 24 hours.
The only one".
He immediately gave the arrest of the first suspect as an example: “Note that at 12 noon the first suspect was arrested.”
He was referring to Patricio Valentín García (22), who a week later was released because he proved that he had nothing to do with the crime.
That had been the only arrest that the Buenos Aires police made in the case.
Patricio Valentín García (22): the Buenos Aires police arrested him for Uma's crime but he had nothing to do with it.
In different municipalities in the south and north of the GBA consulted by
Clarín
they recognize an increase in crime and violence.
They attribute this to the strong social deterioration of recent years and addictions.
Neighbors who have marched in recent weeks to demand justice and security also reported that there are more robberies and fewer police on the street.
The 10 deaths at the start of the year speak for themselves.
MG