Uruguay seeks to prevent an unprecedented wave of homicides and drug violence

Uruguay is suffering from a wave of homicides that have prompted the government to “double down” efforts to combat a level of drug violence unprecedented in the country, which in recent years has become main point of drug transit.

Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber said Wednesday that “police have doubled their efforts in the fight, without retreating even an inch” after meeting with President Luis Lacalle Pou.

Heber asked the president to include in the budget something for increase the number of police“more vehicles and fewer drug prosecutors” to deal with the violence product of “the drug gang confrontation“.

The minister confirmed that Lacalle Pou supported his plan, although he did not provide details.

By the end of April, Montevideo experienced one of his most terrifying episodes.

First a body, then a head and eventually feet, all from a single person, appeared in different parts of the city in just one week.

frightening findings

The situation in the country has worsened in the last ten days, when another 14 bodies were found.

The last four, between Tuesday and Wednesday, in the Montevidean neighborhood of Peñarol. Three of the bodies are calcined and one of them was also cut off; an unknown level of violence in Uruguay.

The opposition came out to criticize the center-right government for its actions in the face of this situation.

Heber “is not up to the task,” the senator from the opposition Broad Front, Enrique Rubio, said in statements on a local television channel.

crime numbers

Sociologist and researcher Leonardo Mendiondo estimates that measures to strengthen the police and increase patrols they will not work to curb drug crime.

“This is not being solved by more police and more vehicles, but rather a greater understanding of crimes by investigating the modalities of crimes. Heavier hands and more repression will not help. us to get out of our position, “he told AFP.

For Mendiondo the problem is not new, but it has been cooking for decades.

Although in recent years the number of violent deaths in the country has shown a continuous increase.

In 2014, 268 homicides were registered, while in 2018 and 2019 it was at 420 and 393, an increasing trend that only the coronavirus pandemic can stop: in 2020 and 2021 the number dropped to 338 and 300.

But in the first quarter of this year there were 96 homicides, 33% higher than the same period of 2021 and a figure that marks a trend that, if maintained, would set an annual record for homicides in the country.

Change of role

This increase in violent deaths coincides with a change in Uruguay’s role in the global drug hustle market.

The country has become a transit territory in recent years for cocaine traveling from South America to Europe and Africa, according to the international organization Crime Insight.

In June 2021, Spanish authorities seized a ton of cocaine that arrived in a container from Montevideo.

During the two years before that, German customs employees found 4.5 tons of drugs coming from the country in South America.

Source: AFP

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