Santiago Gonzalezdirector of Coexistence and Citizen Security, said that in the administration of the Broad Front “the mouths were not being punctually attacked by the Ministry of the Interior to be closed”, in an interview with the radio program Primera Mañana (El Espectador). Amid a spike in murders, which climbed to 11 in the last five daysGonzález acknowledged that the portfolio has “a problem focused on homicides”.
Faced with the problem of drug trafficking in the Frente Amplio period, when the new government took office in 2020 they reopened “the departmental anti-drug brigades of Montevideo and Canelones” to combat the “microtrafficking”which is the “big problem” of insecurity in neighborhoods, according to Gonzalez.
The director defended the management of the Ministry of the Interior in the fight against drug trafficking, of which he highlighted several records, in “seizure of base paste”, in “formalized persons”, and in “neutralized” and “walled up” drug mouths.
González even stated that this response is part of the escalation of violence: “When you carry out that attack, when you go for drugs, you go for drug trafficking, you unfortunately have some movement that is taking place in some neighborhoods. Peñarol is one of them.”
For the director of Coexistence, you have to “attack what is happeningwhat drives those shootings, what drives a person to set up and set up a business, what are the drug mouths“, to fight drug trafficking.
González also made reference to the three homicides perpetrated in Peñarol on August 24, when three people were found dead with gunshot wounds in a vacant lot in that neighborhood. For him these murders took place “purely and exclusively due to problems related to the base paste”although he clarified that the case is still under investigation.
In addition, he said that from AFE, owner of the open space where the bodies were found, they told him that “there is a very good project” for that area.
