The Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, insists that Uruguay today “is much safer than yesterday”, and for this he will hold a press conference in the coming days, to emphasize that, in his opinion, the citizenry is ” Safer”.
“We are having the weapons we needed to provide security. Next year (in reference to 2023) is a key year for us, ”he said, and fired again at the Broad Front, as usual in his comparisons.
We have two pieces of news, that those who are always predictors of bad news, the year 2022 ended and we have fewer homicides than in 2019, and we compare with 2019, not only because it is another administration, but because there was no pandemic. So, you can compare those years.
Without referring directly to the Broad Front, he alluded to it by adding: Those who said that we were in a kind of chaos, an out-of-control situation, well, the murders in 2022 are less than in 2019 and much less than in 2018. It means that those that generate alarm did not have it when they governed.
“We have to continue working in 2023 (…) but there is a situation that is better than that of 2019,” continued the government hierarch.
Do the statistics support it?
Despite Heber’s narrative, the numbers are not as positive as he sees them, since in all of 2022 a total of 382 cases were reported, 82 more than in 2021, an increase of 27.3%.
If the year is dissected, it is found that the first semester showed an increase of 39% compared to the same segment of 2021: 188 homicides were registered, 53 more than the first semester of 2021. The Ministry of the Interior also reported that in the third quarter from 2022 there was an increase of 17.2%. There were 95 homicides, 14 more than the previous year if the same period is considered.
And 2023 does not start in a rosy way: on January 1, four homicides took place in Montevideo alone. The first case was in Brazo Oriental, where a 29-year-old woman was murdered by a man who came to her home on a motorcycle and shot her with a firearm. It happened at 12:45 p.m. on Sunday. Another man was injured by the same assailant.
The second case was in the area of the Maroñas Hippodrome, where a 45-year-old man was stabbed by another of about 40. He died at 4:50 a.m. at the Capitán Tula Polyclinic as a result of his injuries. Minutes before, the attacker had turned himself in to the police claiming self-defense.
In Malvín Norte, a 22-year-old man was shot in the chest and was treated at the Pasteur Hospital, where he died after being admitted at around 5:30 a.m.
Finally, the police reported that a 27-year-old individual also died as a victim of a firearm: the victim’s body was found submerged in a ravine. Witnesses told the authorities that there was an argument during a party, followed by running, shouting and at least one shot.
