The Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber, denied this Monday at a press conference that the Ministry of the Interior “makes up” the crime figures.
“When it is affirmed that there is makeup of the figures of the crimes, That is not true. Can there be errors? There may be errors. But a make-up attitude is impossible because it is not the Police that defines the crime. The Police title the crime and then the one that defines it is the prosecutor or prosecutors“, assured the hierarch after appearing in the Security and Coexistence Commission of the Senate.
Frente Amplio senator Charles Carrera had “accused” the Ministry of the Interior of carrying out a “crude attempt” to “disguise reality” when making a “misleading analysis“of the evolution of the crime figures published this Monday.
“Again (Luis Alberto) Heber returns to make a presentation on the data in a whimsical way and mocking people”, affirmed the legislator in an analysis that disclosed the past through social networks. “Reality has prevailed and it is now impossible for him to say that homicides are going down,” said Carrera, who questions that now, to “minimize” that reality, the ministry choose to compare only the third quarter of each year. In his vision, if the portfolio wanted to show a real trend in the behavior of crimes, it should show series of months or quarters. “He didn’t,” she lamented.
According to the analysis of Carrera – former Director General of the Interior between 2010 and 2017 – if the data had been presented in this way, it could have been seen that the quarters of 2020 and 2021, while the restrictions on activity were in force due to the health emergency, there was a drop in the number of homicides, which went from 101 in the first three months of 2020 to 63 crimes in the second quarter of last year. However, he points out, as of July 2021, with the gradual return to activities, the murders also increased, and “with a violence never seen before in the country.”
While between January and October 2019 there were 314 homicides, until the same month of 2022 there were 326, 3.8% more. In addition, the dissemination of homicide figures for technicians is especially relevant because it is one of the few crimes where underreporting is minimal. It is virtually impossible for a homicide to go unreported. In terms of theft or robbery, however, the evolution of the indicators depends on the complaints of the victims.
Heber denied that Astesiano could use The Guardian
In turn, the minister said that it is impossible for the former presidential custodian, Alejandro Astesiano, to be able to use the telephone surveillance system, El Guardian, since it can only be used by court order.
Last Thursday, the Ministry of the Interior announced that the system by which legal interceptions are carried out “gives full guarantees that only through the intervention of a prosecutor and a competent judge can wiretapping be carried out.” “It is impossible for there to be an interception without the intervention of the Judge and Prosecutor,” they said in a statement.
The Observer was able to confirm that Astesiano offered the use of The Guardian. In turn, MVD Noticias reported last Thursday that the former custodian resorted to this system illegally and with complicity of police officers, to compare telephone numbers at the request of an Argentine businessman. The message integrates chats that were recovered by the Scientific Police and that were disclosed by La Diaria.
