The Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, led a press conference of his portfolio where he provided the data on the statistics of the crimes that occurred during the first quarter of the year (January-March).
Specifically, compared to the data for the same quarter in 2021, homicides rose by 33.3%; thefts 3.2% and domestic violence 11.2%. For its part, robbery fell by 6.3%, while cattle rustling by 16.3%.
Given the increase, the minister said: “We are comparing ourselves with ourselves, this quarter with the same one in 2021.” Later, he compared the figures with those of the previous two years (2019 and 2020), in which a drop was reflected.
“We have numbers where there is an increase in homicides this quarter and there is a small increase in thefts. On the other hand, there is a considerable drop in robberies, which consolidates the work done by the ministry regarding the fight against this crime. He then added that “there is an increase in domestic violence and the decrease in rustling is consolidated”
“We want to especially highlight the numbers that consolidate the drop in robberies, because we are talking about 8,500 robberies in 2019, 9,000 in 2020 and in 2021 there were 6,894 and in 2021 6,463. There are 2,100 fewer robberies compared to 2019 and 2,600 less compared to 2020,” he added.
The analysis and the most complicated departments are missing
Heber was emphatic that the Police had not yet been able to make the numbers “so as to break them down.” Given this, he preferred “not to rush” and maintain facts that are not verifiable. “We’re not in a position to go deep without that,” he added.
He also stressed that the numbers historically rose in the first quarter of the year, which also “must be analyzed.”
Subsequently, the hierarch put the focus on the departments that had the most increase in terms of homicides. “Compared to 2021 there are 24 more homicides. The growth occurs in three departments: Montevideo, Canelones and Rivera. In the capital it rose from 43 to 52, in Canelones, from nine to 14, and in Rivera, from two to eight”, he indicated.
In the case of the border department, he maintained that the deaths occurred “in a confrontation between gangs in January, we went from two homicides to eight. Of the six more homicides, the Ministry has already clarified five.
Regarding these three departments, he stressed that work will be deepened there to alleviate the situation. “We are going to spend the next quarter on a reinforcement, a greater presence and a deep analysis to combat them,” he said.
However, he explained that it has not yet been determined how this work will be reinforced, since for this they first need to analyze the data.
Homicides unrelated to other crimes
Heber stressed that a positive aspect is that most of the murders that have occurred are not derived from other crimes such as robbery and theft.
“Of the homicides we have a news that indicates the level of professionalization of the Police, which is the level of consummated murders derived from thefts and robberies; people dying who have no direct or indirect link to the crime,” he said.
“We have the record since 2015, where this figure substantially dropped to four homicides of people derived from crime. We hope that the action of the police maintains those numbers, which are for citizen protection, ”he added.
The hierarch detailed, in the sense of the above, that “47% of homicides are due to gang conflicts, drug trafficking and settling scores; 8% are due to spontaneous altercations; domestic violence 14%; robberies and similar behaviors 4%; and other reasons, which are unknown, 23%”.
“Many of the doubtful deaths are in the Forensic Technical Institute, which will determine what type of death it is,” he added.
Rivera’s complications
The Secretary of State referred to Rivera again, where he pointed out particular characteristics in terms of crime.
“In Rivera we have a problem of importing bands that perform in our country and face each other in Brazil and Uruguay. We have contact with the Brazilian Federal Police, which provides us with information to be able to determine how these gangs work in order to combat them,” he said.
To conclude, Heber stressed that, in the current context, “we did not return to the pre-pandemic figure for thefts and robberies.”
He also highlighted the “transparency” of the Ministry when providing the data. “We present the numbers when they work for us and when they don’t work for us, that speaks of our transparency and the seriousness of the Observatory,” he said.
Finally, he sent a message of support and congratulations to the Police “in their fight with crime.” “I want to vindicate the work of the Police, we support them, we support them and we congratulate them because this is the way to go to fight organized crime and especially drug trafficking, which is our enemy,
