Uruguay is experiencing months of increases in crime and violence indicators, since sustained increases in homicides have been observed. In just 11 days in May, the same figure was reached for the entire month of April 2021, when 16 cases had been raised. In the first week of May, 9 murders were reported and, in the first quarter of the current year, these types of events increased in relation to the same period last year.
Figures from the Ministry of the Interior indicate that, until the beginning of May, 96 homicides, 6,463 robberies, 30,444 thefts, 272 rustling (cattle theft) and 10,141 acts of domestic violence had been confirmed. Domestic violence grew 11.20% and thefts grew by 3.20%. The robberies fell 6.30% and the theft of cattle 16.30%.
Despite everything, Minister Luis Alberto Heber believes that “it is difficult” to anticipate some crimes, but he says he understands that people demand security.
The hierarch alluded to an attempted assault that ended in death in the Peñarol neighborhood, when a subject entered a business to rob, but ended up fatally wounding the owner with several bullets and his wife in the back, also with projectiles.
This incident occurred four blocks from where a week before a man died of a gunshot to the head at the height of Camino Edison at the intersection with Lamartine Street: two people shot the victim without saying a word and escaped.
At the time of the event on Saturday the 29th, there were at least six police cars in the vicinity, and even so, the attacker escaped by running down Camino Edison. For Heber, they were “surrounding” the place, and added: “But we are going to have to continue reinforcing (…) the crime is running away as the fight is taking place and we are going to have to keep running it.”
Immovable in its strategy
He stressed his confidence in the plan that he has in his security portfolio, which he has been applying since he took office after the death of Jorge Larrañaga. “People are right to demand security, what happens is that sometimes it is difficult to foresee this type of crime,” he said.
“This weekend we have had three homicides in Montevideo and one in Canelones. Unfortunately there is a situation that shocks a lot, which is what happened in the Peñarol neighborhood with the grocer who in broad daylight, at noon, in the middle of the fair, a person comes in to rob him and gets into a fight with the woman. The woman is hospitalized, I think she is in good condition or recovering and the grocer, who is a worker, passed away. An enormous pity that the situation of this worker gives the Police and Uruguayan society, ”explained the Secretary of State when consulted by Underlined.
The murderer has not yet been found, but Heber says they have “identified” him.
