Rosario is known worldwide for being where Messi was born. But for years now, Argentines have identified the city, located 300 kilometers from Buenos Aires, as the epicenter of drug trafficking in the country.
Insecurity and high crime rates linked to drugs and disputes between gangs are not a new phenomenon in Rosario, but the inauguration in December of the new governor of the province of Santa Fe, who has declared war on the mafias , the radical Maximiliano Pullaro, has unleashed a terrifying response from the drug trafficker, reminiscent of the methods used by his Mexican, Colombian or Brazilian partners.
Four random murders, without the intention of robbing, have caused alarm in the city and throughout Argentina, to the point that far-right president Javier Milei is studying a legal change to be able to deploy the army in the streets. The homicides were committed with firearms between Tuesday and Saturday of last week: two taxi drivers, a trolley bus driver and a gas station employee.
The weapons used in the first three crimes correspond to the Santa Fe police, many of whose agents are in the pay of the drug traffickers or act as their hitmen. The murders of the two taxi drivers were apparently committed by the same person who, in both cases, left a sneaker as a mafia message. At the gas station, the perpetrator of the crime left a threatening note that more or less coincided with a banner that appeared last Saturday on a bridge in the city: “Pullaro and Cococcioni (Minister of Justice and Security of Santa Fe) messed with our children and family members, the deaths of innocent people, taxi drivers, bus drivers, garbage collectors, merchants will continue.” The note from the service station, signed by gangs from several neighborhoods in Rosario, added some demands: “We don't want cell phones (...) we want our rights, to see our children and family.”
The four murders were the criminals' first response to the plan that Pullaro launched when he assumed the government of the province and that on March 5 was staged showing images of a search of telephones and prohibited objects in the Piñero prison in Santa Fe, where The prisoners were packed together in the style of Salvadoran Bukele's prisons.
The day after the jail search, the first of the four homicides took place. Upon taking office, Pullaro said that he intended to “attack drug sales and restore social peace” and added: “We are going to end the home office of criminals from places of detention,” in reference to the fact that criminal leaders continue to run their businesses. from prisons.
The murders have generated panic among Rosario residents. Threats are multiplying and diversifying through WhatsApp and even target football associations or clubs, which has led to extraordinary personal protection measures.
Milei, assisted by his Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, who takes a tough line against crime, ordered the deployment of federal forces – Federal Police, Gendarmerie and Prefecture (naval) – and intends to send military personnel to patrol the streets of Rosario. , something prohibited by legislation due to the disastrous role that the armed forces had during the repression of the dictatorship. The president wants to change the law so that soldiers can carry weapons and perform police duties. At the moment, he has already sent military vehicles and helicopters, which act as logistical support for the federal forces.
Rosario, with only 1.6 million inhabitants, including its metropolitan area, has the highest rate of violent deaths in Argentina, a country that has one of the lowest murder rates in Latin America. According to the Santa Fe Public Security Observatory, in 2022 there were 19.84 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in Rosario, almost double the provincial average rate and almost five times more than the Argentine average, which is 4.2.
More than a decade ago, drug trafficking began to take control of the city, with about thirty gangs fighting, now united in their fight with the State, the most important of which is Los Monos. Gangs that operate locally but are also at the service of the Mexican and Colombian cartels, which use the waterway from Paraguay to the Atlantic through the Paraná River and its ports – which constitute the largest agro-export node in the world – to transport drugs destined for Africa and Europe.
