Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber has stated that security in Uruguay has improved compared to previous years. During a press conference at the Punta del Diablo resort, the Secretary of State announced that the Government will present the crime figures for the last quarter of 2022 and the annual consolidated figures next week. Without revealing specific details, Heber gave a general assessment of the trend in the data.
“We have seen a decrease in robberies, thefts and homicides compared to 2019, a year without a pandemic,” said the minister. “While these results are encouraging, we still have a lot of work to do to further improve security in our country,” he added.
On the occasion of the press conference, Heber also inaugurated a sub-station in Punta del Diablo, and visited the towns of Castillos, La Coronilla, Velázquez and Lascano.
The minister also spoke that in a televised program Esta boca es mía on channel 12, on December 29, 2022, and asserted that up to that moment there had been 380 homicides in the year, a figure higher than that of 2020 and 2021, but lower than that of 2019 and 2018.
Four homicides in less than 24 hours
While Heber was making these statements, Montevideo suffered a violent day on Thursday, with four homicides recorded in less than 24 hours. Investigators had only cleared up one of the cases at press time, after the suspect turned himself in to authorities.
the first homicide It was discovered when a neighbor alerted the police about a sordid discovery in the patio of a house in the Cerro Norte neighborhood: the body of a 74-year-old man inside a black garbage bag with a shot to the head and hands. tied with a rope. Investigators determined that the victim, who owned the home and had not been seen in the neighborhood for a long time, had no criminal record and made a living selling parts from televisions or other appliances. He was also regularly seen going through the trash. At the moment there are no indications and security cameras near the scene are being searched.
The second homicide was west of Montevideo, in Paso de la Arena, and the only one for which a person responsible is known. Police discovered the body of a 28-year-old man, who had been shot in the head. Witnesses at the site explained that a car approached the young man, fired multiple shots and quickly fled. The victim was riding his motorcycle on Camino Flores and Route 1. Shortly after, the police arrested a 56-year-old man who confessed to having committed the homicide, alleging that the victim had been blackmailing him for several days.
The day ended with a double murder of two men aged 33 and 35 in the La Paloma neighborhood, near the Cerro de Montevideo. The incident was reported to the Police around noon on Thursday after neighbors heard various shots. The bodies had impacts on the torso, chest and lower extremities. According to sources of the investigation, the place where the bodies were found was a drug mouth. The case is in charge of the 2nd shift criminal prosecutor of Montevideo for Homicide, Mirta Morales.
