Interior Minister Luis Alberto Heber announced a plan to combat homicides, which will be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
This Tuesday the Ministry of the Interior presented figures with the evolution of crimes. During 2022, homicides grew 25%, thefts 1.1%, and domestic violence 3.8%. Likewise, looting fell 5.9% and rustling 7%.
Minister Luis Alberto Heber pointed out that “we returned to the pre-pandemic level of homicides. Other crimes continue to drop, but unfortunately we cannot lower domestic violence.”
Interviewed by Desayunos Informales (Teledoce) he said that “today we are safer than in 2019” and indicated that homicides linked to robbery and theft have decreased. “We are acting. We have approved an IDB project for homicide prevention. It is to put people who have been linked to crime, recruit them and collaborate. Former inmates, people who have already served their sentence, have been re-educated in society, ”he said.
He pointed out that the express “would contact the criminal groups that we as a ministry cannot have. It would be people who would have a social job. That is an experience that has had results. He is not an infiltrator, he is a person who served his sentence, he has a record. It is the plan for the turf war that is taking place in the neighborhoods.” He indicated that the plan will be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank: “we already have the approval of the loan.”
Very serious what they propose
The deputy for the Colorado Party, Gustavo Zubía, had run before the inter-party table for security that had been proposed by the Minister of the Interior, Luis Alberto Heber. However, they chose to reject Zubía’s offer and go for a fellow sector of Diego Sanjurjo – ministerial adviser and leader of the homicide prevention project -, Ciudadanos, from the Colorado Party, criminal lawyer Andrés Ojeda. In this way, Sanjurjo and Ojeda will be the ones to carry out the guidelines that will be financed by the Inter-American Development Bank.
Once Zubía found out about the project, the criticism began since, according to the right-wing deputy, measures are being implemented that are in line with those of the Broad Front. Zubía is referring to the intention of the government’s plan to recruit former inmates to help in the homicide prevention process. “What is being said by Heber’s advisers is very serious. We are doing, with the former inmates, what the left proposes in the world. But then…we turned left and they didn’t warn us. Is the coalition turning to the left?” The former prosecutor posted on his Twitter. On the other hand, he questioned the resources to carry out the plan and wondered how they can tell if an inmate is recovered or not.
Faced with this, Sanjurjo replied that he preferred not to make many comments about Ojeda’s criticism, although he clarified that he believes that within the coalition there should be loyalty and respect since there are people who choose to criticize in order to receive attention because they have no project to present. or carry out. In addition, he established that he does not care if the projects are from the left or from the right, but what matters is that they work and help save lives. That is why he highlighted the effectiveness of this type of plans in the region and the potential it has in Uruguay.
What is the project of the Ministry of the Interior about? Heber’s plan is defined from the intentions of finding the causes of the crimes and thinking about them in the long term. The minister’s program consists of three parts. The first part consists of an approach that counts with the participation of the relevant ministries, such as the Ministry of Social Development, as well as the different political parties that present their ideas. In this part of the program, the homicide containment plan is included, where they propose the summons of former inmates to entrust them with a task of detection and irruption of crimes. The second part of the program refers to the social reinsertion of people who went through the penitentiary system, as well as intervening in drug use. The third and last part consists of strengthening the National Police, especially in the area of mental health, something that is highly demanded by the union.
Rain of criticism and memes
This new strategy that the Ministry of the Interior could implement did not go unnoticed on social networks, where criticism from opposition representatives, as well as from network users, did not take long to appear.
One of the first to react was the frontista deputy Bettiana Díaz, who described the management of the Ministry of the Interior as “improvised and disastrous.” «The interviews with Minister Heber are not wasted, it is increasingly clear that the management of the Ministry of the Interior is as improvised as it is disastrous. Heber does something that is needed: water everywhere ». On the other hand, several network users commented that the proposal released by the Interior Minister reminded them of the American film Suicide Squad. According to the plot of this fiction, the government releases the most dangerous people from jails and psychiatric hospitals, all possessing special powers, with the aim of forming a team of elite fighters to stop a powerful entity. Other users questioned the “incompetence” of the government. “They are sending the former inmates to the gallows, but be careful, with money from the IDB. Nothing could go wrong… Incompetence, was this the plan? They were prepared?”.
Undoubtedly one has to think that the task is good, or at least that the intention is to seek a positive result, and that at some point, a glimmer of logic may exist, but it clearly seems like a utopian project, clearly unrealizable in a society like ours and in a system as permeable as the Uruguayan, even after the cases of Astesiano and Marset, it does not seem to be the moment to “go out” with this project, clearly, as the kids say now: “it is not that way Luis Alberto”.
Juan Prandi
