Lucas Aranda
01/03/2021 16:14
Clarín.com
Police
Updated 01/03/2021 16:14
The last days of 2020 were marked in Rosario by the discovery of two dismembered corpses and thrown in garbage containers.
The grisly double crime in the southern part of the city set a new and disturbing precedent to close the year with
212 homicides in the department
, the highest number of victims in the second half of the decade despite temporary relief during the quarantine.
The total number of cases registered by the Santa Fe Public Safety Observatory (OSP) represents a
year-on-year increase of 26%
.
You have to go back to 2015 to find a higher number in terms of murders in the main city of the province and its neighboring towns, where the resurgence of violence only gave a respite during the stage with stricter measures to prevent the spread of coronavirus.
The contrast when it comes to comparing the numbers in and out of quarantine is stark.
Between April and May, the two full months in which Rosario was under social, preventive and compulsory isolation, 12 deaths were registered, with an average of one every 5 days.
The ratio in the remaining ten months of last year is
one homicide every 36 hours
.
Preliminary reports from the Public Ministry of Action (MPA) show that the increase in the number of murders is
above the average for the entire Santa Fe territory
.
Most of the events occur at night and in 78% of the cases the aggressors act with firearms.
Jorge David Giménez (29), alias "Colo", and Víctor Martín Baralis (44), "Poliyo", murdered and dismembered in Rosario.
In turn, at least 100 of the episodes under investigation have as their main hypothesis the link with criminal economies or criminal organizations such as drug gangs.
In other words, almost half of the total figure was linked to revenge linked to drug trafficking.
Apart from the pandemic, the increase in violence in Rosario is one of the main problems faced by the provincial government after a year in office in which a profound and ambitious police reform was announced.
The current head of Regional Unit II, Adrián Forni, is the
fifth head appointed by the current Peronist administration
in parallel with the sending of three projects to the Legislature to implement a new regulation of the body and state agencies linked to the problem.
Faced with this scenario, the Security Minister of Santa Fe, Marcelo Sain, admits bluntly that
the force "has lost control of the street
" in Rosario.
The good relationship with the Casa Rosada allowed it to access financing for 3,000 million pesos to address the crisis and even the national portfolio landed with its own unit in October to reinforce the work in the city.
Traces of violence for a double crime in the western area of Rosario.
Photo: JUAN JOSE GARCIA
Homicides reached their peak a few weeks before the epidemiological curve of Covid-19 did.
In September, 28 murders were registered
, practically one per day, an average higher than in the first two months, which resulted in 50 fatalities.
In April, by contrast, there were only four crimes.
It is a floor without antecedents since the beginning of 2013, when the reform was made to pass to the accusatory system in the criminal jurisdiction.
Although the main heads of narcocriminal organizations are behind bars, the violence does not subside.
Sain sees two factors in this situation.
On the one hand, leaders such as Ariel Máximo “Guille” Cantero retain influence and the ability to give orders despite being in prison.
On the other hand, there are
young “little soldiers” who dispute with armed hand the territorial control
that previously guaranteed the police collusion, thus establishing themselves as “rustic managers” of those areas.
The MPA numbers coincide with this analysis if the distribution of victims by age group is observed.
As of November,
52.7% of the people killed in Rosario were under 30 years old
.
To that list was later added a baby of just eight months who was shot in the skull when he was with his mother inside a house in the west.
Lian Ángel Corvalán died on the night of Saturday, December 22, hours after being admitted to the Víctor J. Vilela Children's Hospital for an attack on another person in the street.
EMJ
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