Narcos, Argentina-Style: Is Rosario Turning Into The New Medellín?
-Analysis
BUENOS AIRES — It may be too much to use the “bloodbath” as some have to describe what criminals have wrought in Rosario, the riverside district northwest of the Argentine capital. But in one sector there, the size of one-fifth of the city, the rate of criminal killings has become comparable to those of Medellín in the 1980s, the worst years of the Colombian city’s drug cartel violence. These are cold and hard numbers, not hyperbole. Figures show Rosario has a crime rate that is four or five times the average rate of Argentina’s main cities.
Last week, four civilians including two taxi drivers were shot dead in Rosario, and the culprits very likely work with the same people who have committed other gun crimes in Argentina. It’s the people whose stray bullets end up killing children on the street, or who machine-gunned the home of the provincial governor of Santa Fe (Antonio Bonfatti) a decade ago.
Executions are the very signature of gangs and organized crime. Before the taxi drivers, the new governor and his family had been threatened more than 20 times, and gunmen opened fire on a bus carrying prison employees, though somehow, nobody was hurt.
No such miracle happened for Lorenzo Altamirano, a musician kidnapped and murdered in February 2023. He was neither involved in the drug trade nor a soccer hooligan, but his body was dumped outside the Newell’s Old Boys stadium. The point of the crime: it was a message from one gang to another. You’d think they could have sent an e-mail or a WhatsApp, but they preferred to use a hapless youngster who dreamed of playing guitar in a band.
“Messi, we’re waiting for you. ”