Known for its tranquility, Montevideo becomes a crime territory

Considered until a few years ago a city with a high quality of life and good security levels, the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo is now facing a growing wave of crime, caused by the dispute between different gangs for control of drug trafficking.

The neighborhoods of Villa Española and Peñarol are at the center of the local war, creating a worrying precedent in one of the most peaceful countries in Latin America. According to the Global Peace Index, a report prepared by the magazine The Economist in partnership with major universities around the world, Uruguay is the second safest country in the region, just behind Costa Rica, which has also been heavily affected by drug trafficking activity.

In November last year, Uruguayan authorities discovered the body of a man half-buried in a vacant lot in Peñarol, a neighborhood north of Montevideo. The case was later linked to other murders, including that of a woman whose body was also dismembered and abandoned in a drain in the same neighborhood.

In Villa Española, shootings have become increasingly frequent between drug traffickers, who have even created a “curfew” in the region, preventing residents from leaving their homes at night for fear of being hit in the crossfire. Two gangs are mainly responsible for criminal actions in this specific location: the Pibitos and the Albín, who are at war for control of microdrug trafficking, according to investigators.

Given the escalation of violence in Montevideo, the two neighborhoods were targets of a recent mega police operation that came to the attention of the federal government, led by President Luis Lacalle Pou. In a statement on the occasion, the Uruguayan president said that his administration is working on a “strong strategy to deal with the recent increase in crime and violence in the country”.

“We must work harder to combat drug trafficking and we must work harder with those people who are willing to put an end to the illicit business,” he said, adding that the Ministry of Interior is monitoring the current situation closely and working to resolve the problems. of the capital.

According to the investigative journalism NGO InsightCrimewhich investigates organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, in recent years, Uruguay has been on track to break a record number of homicides, mainly due to conflicts between gangs.

Official government data confirms the phenomenon by showing that the country, considered one of the safest in Latin America, went from 283 murders in 2017 to 420 the following year. In 2021, cases fell again to 300, but rose again in the following two years. By way of comparison, in 2010, there were six murders for every 100,000 inhabitants in Uruguay.

According to an investigation by the news portal Search, three clans led by the Vallejo, Caldera and Segales families are allegedly behind much of the violence in Peñarol. The leader of this last family, Mauro Segales, was arrested and charged in October with the murder of the woman whose dismembered body was found in the neighborhood.

In Villa Española, three other groups run by the Puglia, Albín and Suárez families were responsible for most of the violence, the weekly reported.

Despite the list of the main criminal gangs operating in the locality, information collected by the Uruguayan police estimates that 45 family clans are responsible for the growing violence in Montevideo and its surroundings. In addition to being responsible for selling drugs in the capital, these factions also use land and river routes to bring drugs into the country, according to Alfredo Rodríguez, director of combating drug trafficking at the Uruguayan police.

In addition to the crisis on the streets, a report by the country's Parliamentary Commissioner for the Penitentiary System, released last year, reveals that Uruguay's prison population has tripled in the last two decades, growing at a rate of 10% per year. This situation has caused a true collapse in the prison system, with high levels of overcrowding and internal violence in prisons, an issue directly linked to the rise of criminal activities in the hitherto safe nation.