The arrest of the two drivers accused of hitting Sergio Berni in the protests for the murder of the bus driver Daniel Barrientos showed, with shocking images, how the "
special forces"
of the Buenos Aires Police operate and act.
A video that went viral hours later showed an excessive use of violence, logistics, and deployment to enter homes where the families of the workers were resting
in the middle of the night.
The focus was on the UTOI (Immediate Operations Tactical Unit),
a commando-type group
that is designed to act in
rapid, shock and “high-risk” actions
.
This did not seem to be the case with the arrest of Jorge Galeano (49) and Jorge Zerda (32), the drivers who were surprised in the middle of the night by an operation that seemed to be copied from Netflix action series.
Defined as a
"rapid deployment multipurpose police unit"
, it is prepared for all police functions and has "high mobility".
A key fact of operation:
it reports directly to the Minister.
It avoids "bureaucratic delays and responds to the requests of the political head of the force quickly and effectively," they explained in La Plata.
The UTOI are part of the "elite" group that has the provincial security force.
They were created in 2017,
under the management of the former Minister of Security of the Province, Cristian Ritondo, and were trained by the famous
Grupo Halcón,
known for its interventions in high-risk cases.
Sergio Berni in a meeting with delegates of drivers and responded for the absurd operation to stop his attackers.
In the first months it was made up of between 180 and 200 agents who were assigned to the Infantry or the Patrol Command.
The training in tactics and intervention strategies is
three or six months longer than the rest of the cadets
who graduate from the academies.
In total, 18 months of instruction to reach the special body.
Minister
Sergio Berni decided to reinforce and extend the influence of the UTOI
along with the first neighborhood demands for a greater police presence and improvement in citizen security.
In July 2020 -in the midst of the Covid pandemic- a demonstration by residents of Villa Madero (La Matanza) demanded solutions from the authorities after a series of robberies, assaults and attacks on neighbors.
Berni tried to solve it by resorting to the UTOI: he met with the inhabitants of the place and hours later he led an operation to set up
a section of the tactical unit in that neighborhood with 100 men
, a detachment-container and three monitoring booths.
It was then reported that
they "doubled" the crew
and gave him a "conflict police role and with a lot of approximation and social support work."
He changed the orientation and function of the police battalion.
The initiative excited the official.
Thereafter
it resorted to the “UTOI solution” also to solve the lack of personnel in other regions
.
"The minister appealed to this departure to
replace the Gendarmes who were leaving the GBA,"
they explained in the Governor's Office.
Thus, the minister deployed tactical units in the 32 departments distributed throughout the provincial territory.
“Now,
3 out of 10 graduates end up at the UTOI.
They do the training and they are posted there.
It is the
"fetish" of the minister,"
said an official from Buenos Aires to
Clarín
.
Berni observed the operation of the special forces of
France, Spain and Germany,
among other countries, to model the Buenos Aires brigade.
The intervention in the early hours of Thursday did not appear to meet those standards.
Even the vice president, Cristina Fernández, criticized the police action in a post on social networks.
“Was the magnitude of the operation and the treatment given to the detainee necessary, as if it were trying to apprehend a
drug trafficker in his bunker?
”, Cristina questioned in a tweet.
The officers of this squad
wear a special uniform, have more weapons and sophisticated communication equipment
.
They film each of their interventions.
In Buenos Aires they explained to
Clarín
that they are sent to
"all raids."
The most complex, to stop a drug trafficker.
Or the simplest, to break into the home of an abuser.
“They acted according to protocol.
If there were excesses, I apologize on behalf of the group,"
Berni said Thursday after meeting with the bus union.
The arrest was requested by the prosecutor Carlos Rolero Santurian and validated by the judge Luisa María Escrich, both of the Buenos Aires Justice, which intervenes because the aggression occurred under that jurisdiction.
But Judge Lucía Emilce Casabayo, in charge of Guarantee Court No. 6 of Morón, Province of Buenos Aires, also intervened.
The order was carried out by the force led by Berni.
La Plata (Correspondent)
SC
look also
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