In recent years, the city of Rosario, located in the province of Santa Fe, Argentina, was considered the most dangerous in Argentina due to the strong influence of drug trafficking groups in its territory. However, with the arrival of Javier Milei as President and Patricia Bullrich as Minister of Security, an operation to recover the region was set up and the homicide rate has already fallen by 78%, according to the latest official data from April.
Rosario is 300 kilometers from Buenos Aires and is the third largest in Argentina. It is the birthplace of figures as diverse as Che Guevara and Lionel Messi, and it was under the sail that the flag created by Manuel Belgrano was raised for the first time. However, its history was overshadowed by the increase in violence which, in 2022, recorded its historic high with 248 homicides. In 2021, 201 homicides were recorded and 215 in 2023.
According to the Center for Latin American Studies on Insecurity and Violence at the University of Tres de Febrero, in 2020 there were 16.4 people murdered per 100,000 inhabitants. This rate is even higher than that of Villa 31, the most dangerous favela in Buenos Aires, which in the same year recorded around 12.9 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Rosario currently has a homicide rate four times higher than the national average.
In turn, the Security Observatory of the company Verisure indicated that, in 2023, Rosário was the city that recorded the most criminal acts in the country. Behind these worrying numbers lies the main culprit behind the change in the life of Rosarios, drug trafficking.
The city has become the main point for criminal groups and drug traffickers due to its strategic location on the Paraguay-Paraná Waterway, which involves the five countries of the River Plate basin (Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Argentina), being the main port agro-exporter from Argentina. The existence of more than 30 ports in the region facilitates the free movement of drugs.
But what really makes the region so violent are the fights between criminal groups for control of the city’s drug trafficking. The 30 or so groups are operated by leaders who continue to give orders from prison, as is the case with Rosario’s largest gang, Los Monos.
As Rosario plunges into a territorial battle between these criminal groups, the number of homicides continues to multiply. Earlier this year, innocent people were violently murdered, including a young gas station employee, two taxi drivers and a bus driver, all shot and killed at random by gunmen.
After this escalation of deaths, Milei held an emergency meeting with her Minister of Security and allocated resources to contain violence in the city.
Operation Flag
A few days after taking office, Milei and Bullrich launched, together with the governor of Santa Fé, Maximiliano Pullaro, Operation Bandeira, a coordinated work operation between the Nation and the province with the objective of reducing conflict in the territory, accompanied by a new regime in prisons with the implementation of strong restrictions on prisoners considered to be of high danger.
Popularly compared to the regime implemented in El Salvador prisons by Nayib Bukele, the operation also envisages the creation of maximum security pavilions to separate murderers and drug traffickers from ordinary prisoners, and isolation cells for the most dangerous prisoners, in addition to checks periodic searches in prisons in search of clandestine cell phones.
In March, Governor Pullaro released images showing a surprise operation inside prisons, which showed prisoners in the same conditions as those in El Salvador.
Operation Bandeira also had the help of military logistical resources, through a resolution of the Ministry of Defense, in which the joint command of the Armed Forces was instructed to carry out “System Support Operations” and “Internal Security Operations”. In the first month alone, the operation managed to reduce the homicide rate in areas controlled by federal forces by 57%.
In turn, the government created a Crisis Committee that includes the three branches of government and measures such as sending the Anti-Gang Law to Congress, the eradication of weapons and the formation of special investigation teams.
“President Javier Milei has tasked Luis Petri (Defense Minister) and me with carrying out, together with the authorities of the province of Santa Fe, a tireless fight to free Rosario from drug trafficking criminals,” said Bullrich, during a press conference he gave at the headquarters of the Santa Fe Government, in Rosario.
Results
According to a report from the Ministry of National Security, since January of this year, more than 1,755 police officers and Federal Police agents have been sent to Rosario to combat drug trafficking and violence on the city’s streets.
At the provincial level, April 2024 saw the largest drop, with 73% fewer homicides compared to the same month the previous year. In the city of Rosario, April was also the month with the most significant drop, with a 78% drop compared to April 2023.
In areas under the responsibility of federal forces, the reduction in homicides reached 100% in some areas.
From December to date, 468 people have been arrested and 118 kilos of cocaine, 88.52 kg of marijuana and 50,544 units of synthetic drugs have been seized.
There was also a 59% drop in shootings compared to the previous year. Furthermore, the Minister of Security announced the complete dismantling of a network of drug traffickers with money laundering activities in Rosario.
Last week, Bullrich was also in El Salvador, where he visited the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), and the National Academy of Public Security (ANSP), to observe the measures and policies that can serve in the fight against drug trafficking.
The Minister of Security followed the various training activities, learned about the educational programs and held conversations about the practices implemented in the professionalization of police forces.
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