“The data of the last few months give us the reason that there was no substantial positive change,” said the Broad Front senator.
With a difference of one day, the front senator Mario Bergara and the director of Security and Coexistence of the Ministry of the Interior, Santiago González, discussed public security in the 970 Universal studios.
“There is no comprehensive vision or clear strategy on security. And the data of the last months give us the reason that there was no substantial positive change in crime, homicides and drug trafficking, and that causes us a lot of concern”, Senator Bergara said on Wednesday the 15th in an interview with 970 Newswith Cesar Bianchi.
Likewise, the senator questioned the management of the Ministry of the Interior. “The government showed the drop in crime and in particular in homicides as an achievement, but it is clear that it has changed significantly in the last 8 or 10 months. The government argued that this improvement was due to the articles of the LUC, and as a new mood of driving in the Interior and police action, ”he said.
“After the perception of risk from the pandemic, mobility returned to normal and in this context, crimes rose to previous levels. We believe that reality proves us right: the decrease in crimes the previous year had nothing to do with the LUC or with police actions, and now that mobility has increased, crimes have increased. The month of May, without going any further, has been among the 3 or 4 months with the highest number of homicides since records are kept. And with extreme crime levels, with dismemberments and appearances of body parts,” he added.
On the other hand, on Thursday the 16th, Santiago González, head of the Ministry of the Interior, stated: “If you compare the 27 months of our management with the last 27 months of the Broad Front, we have 164 fewer homicides. We can compare many numbers, put it without a pandemic against without a pandemic: thefts, robberies, cattle rustling. All crimes are down.”
González also referred to how the Ministry of the Interior has acted to attack homicides between drug gangs, and mentioned the Rivera case a few months ago. “In January we had a specific problem in Rivera. It was not a great national drama, but it was a departmental one. There was a faction of three groups that fought over territory. There were eight homicides on the Uruguayan side, and as many on the Brazilian side. A strategic plan was made for Rivera: and seven homicides were clarified -because a part of the security goes through the Justice- and in the following five months there were three more homicides, which had nothing to do with drug trafficking.
Continuous: “For the first time, Minister (Luis Alberto) Heber, in a historic event, in a secret session, told the opposition where the drugs came from, where the drugs came from, what groups and how many people brought the drugs into the country, in what neighborhoods, in what zones, what were we doing, what was the patrolling like, what was the idea, what are we doing in the Directorate, in the Brigade, (he told him details about) the seizures, the intelligence, the information. And being in the same room there were people who said that the minister did not propose any plan… Very rare, “he ironically.
However, Bergara had said that the aforementioned plan was non-existent. And he also thought ironically: “Our criticism is the lack of policies, the lack of strategy. After two and a half years of government they had to make an emergency plan. But how? Wasn’t that a tremendous issue in the election campaign? But no, it turns out that two and a half years after they are in government, they come up with a plan”.
“The sad thing about Minister Heber’s appearance the other day is that it was clear that there is no plan. There is no management, there is no strategy, and there is no comprehensive vision of security policies, which is not just police action. We support police action and in the FA governments the Police were supported in a way that was not supported before. And as it is not being supported now either. We support it with technology, with infrastructure, with equipment, with ammunition, with weapons, with salary, with working conditions, with unionization. All this was in governments of the Broad Front”, Bergara recalled. “Before the governments of the Front, the Police went out to patrol with expired vests, weapons without bullets, and the uniforms seemed gray instead of blue,” he said.
In response, González said: “Senator Bergara is intelligent, a man who knows a lot about numbers. I do not know if he could talk about cryptocurrencies, he is talking about security, but he is fine, he became a senator and has to represent his voters, “González said yesterday when he was reminded of some responses from the leader of the Fuerza Renovadora sector.
“We do not justify and we do not put the backpack on another. The backpack is ours, we are the first to give all the data,” said Santiago González, who recalled that the Broad Front government had closed the departmental drug brigades in Montevideo and Canelones (brigades that were reopened with the arrival of this government). .
“We have to fix this ourselves, because we said we wanted to take responsibility. There is a serious and concrete action plan against certain crimes, in certain places, where the hand had been raised, because the closure of the departmental brigade that was reopened on March 1, 2020 meant no attack on base paste outlets ”, Gonzalez noted.
“Beware that the mouth does not only sell drugs, but also stolen things, and the shots begin, and the deaths around the mouths. We closed 1,162 mouths. And now we are beginning to wall them up, and the walling up of the mouth reduces the crime of drug trafficking by between 12 and 22%. And we are coordinating it with the IM, because its people go and put up the blocks”, assured.
With a difference of 24 hours, Bergara and González demonstrated that they have two very opposite views on the situation of public security in the country. “There has been a speech that has promoted the idea that with two screams everything was going to be resolved magically. A speech that in some way encouraged that in some circumstances the police action is abusive”, pointed out the senator from the Broad Front.
“Overcrowding people in prisons – something this government has done, because there are 3,000 more prisoners in a very short time – only brings more problems. We doubt what control the government has in some prison settings. This government ignores the importance of rehabilitation as part of the security problem”, he opined. “There is no comprehensive security policy, there is no clear strategy,” insisted.
González answered Bergara with figures: “President Vázquez proposed that he would achieve a 30% decrease in robberies, also in thefts, and even spoke of rehabilitation. He said that recidivism was going to drop to 30%, that in the hands of Minister Bonomi. The reality is that instead of going down 30%, robberies increased 53% in five years”.
“If we compare an entire year, we have lowered robberies by 20%, we have lowered thefts by 23%, we have lowered homicides. We are working, we are taking charge”, González concluded.
