In the midst of the worrying situation of violence that Rosario is going through – there were six murders in one day – the Minister of Security, Sabina Frederic, said that the homicide rate of the Federal Capital exceeded that of the city of Santa Fe in 2020. Her statements provoked the response of the head of the Buenos Aires Government, Horacio Rodríguez Larreta, who accused her of giving “false data”: “What she said is very serious.” On Thursday, the official again referred to the issue and ratified her statements, although she clarified that she “never” said that the homicide rate of the City was higher than that of Santa Fe. Between 2019 and 2020, the City had a 20% increase in the homicide rate; in Santa Fe there was an increase of 8.9%. It seems to me that Larreta does not know how to count,” said the minister, who quoted an article published by the newspaper Clarín in April of this year: “They themselves there announce that there was a 22% increase in homicides in CABA.”
Graphic published by the newspaper Clarín with the official figures of the Ministry of Security of Buenos Aires. | Photo: Clarín.
On the wave of violence in the province, he said: “The most serious situation is in Santa Fe, there is a situation of chronic violence.” The numbers are only part of the film we are going through, Rosario has problems linked to drug trafficking. The gravity of this week’s event, a person part of the protected witness program ends up being killed,” she said, speaking to Urbana Play. And he evaluated: “It is serious because people are being killed in a mansalva. Today the hitman is a phenomenon that we are seeing. I say it’s chronic because we’ve been going through this situation in Rosario for a long time.” Frederic said they have made “everything available” and assured that they are working together with the province. The federal penitentiary service depends on the Ministry of Justice of the Nation. I’m not saying the problem is Santa Fe, it’s clearly not a Santa Fe problem. Santa Fe has a difficulty with its police that the governor has clear. We are filling the void that the police leave and doing criminal investigation,” he said. We are with a delegation of the Ministry in Rosario, something that does not happen anywhere else in the country. We are trying to help in any way we can,” he reiterated. The minister was again asked about her striking comparison between Switzerland and Argentina, and said that “boredom had to do with political action, not insecurity.” By boring I meant political action, that there is no challenge, that what is the interest of going to live in Switzerland, is a place where everything is done. I know Switzerland, it’s very nice,” he said. With criticism of the media, he tried to close the issue: “It is a forcing of meaning that has nothing to do with what I meant, it was added in the unstoppable operation that the media have.”
