Patricia Bullrich states crackdown on drug gangs is being successful
Cocaine exports to Europe have actually been obstructed, she says
Murders in Rosario center most affordable in at least a years
By Elliott
BUENOS AIRES, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Patricia Bullrich, Argentina's security minister, is on a mission to stamp out drug gangs in the South American nation that have actually driven increasing violence and caused a spike in cocaine deliveries to Europe. She says she is prospering.
Argentina has actually grown in significance as a transit hub for cocaine as production from Peru and Bolivia has actually streamed down essential waterways and out through river ports such as that of Rosario, Lionel Messi's home town. Gang-related murders increased in tandem.
Bullrich, in a rare interview with worldwide media, told Reuters the year-old federal government of libertarian President Javier Milei was breaking up the gangs and obstructing shipments from making their method to end markets, including to Europe, where the cocaine market has actually broadened in the last few years.
"We've had record cocaine seizures which's generated terrific respect for us regionally and also in Europe, because (in 2024) no shipment from Argentina was identified in Europe," she said at her workplace in Buenos Aires, swwwwiki.coresv.net adding that "naturally there may be some deliveries that were undetected."
The security ministry confirmed that cocaine was not found in any shipments that crossed the South Atlantic from Argentina to a major European port in 2024. Reuters was not able to individually verify that.
Once a rival to Milei as the presidential prospect for demo.qkseo.in the main conservative bloc, Bullrich is now leading the crackdown on criminal activity, tightening borders with Brazil and Bolivia, privatizing some jails and using artificial intelligence to track gangs.
In Rosario, according to city government figures, murders dropped to 90 last year - the most affordable in at least the last decade and down from almost 300 in 2022 and 261 in 2023, e.bike.free.fr the year before Milei and Bullrich took workplace.
"We decided to hit hard against the gangs," Bullrich said, adding that cooperation in between the nationwide and local federal governments in Rosario had actually been an essential aspect, as well as the courts taking a tougher line. The government has also targeted drug kingpins already behind bars.
"We eliminated the power that the drug managers had in the jails, who utilized the jails to keep their drug criminal activity rings going. We separated them," she said.
Andrei Serbin Pont, an Argentine security and intelligence specialist and president of local think tank CRIES, credited a focus on event intelligence with aiding the criminal activity reduction.
"There was a concerted security effort by the national federal government to prioritize Rosario, with a concentrate on criminal intelligence instead of simply having more authorities on the streets, which is a far more practical method," he said.
Bullrich has actually sent a costs to congress to develop a brand-new anti-mafia law, similar to U.S. RICO legislation, to remove criminal networks, and said she has actually also gained from security forces in Britain and Italy.
Last year, she hosted El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele, asteroidsathome.net and visited his mega-prison that holds tens of countless gang members in hard conditions that have actually drawn praise from hardline law-and-order politicians and criticism from rights groups. Photos have revealed rows of tattooed and topless inmates kneeling with their hands behind the heads.
"In our case, our system has been a bit, let's say, less extreme. But when we have to be difficult, we are difficult," said Bullrich.
TOUGHER BORDERS
Bullrich informed Reuters she was reinforcing border controls to stop drug gangs, planning check outs to cocaine-growing locations in Peru, and improving cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Bullrich said the border with Bolivia was being strengthened, including by building a short stretch of wall in northern Salta province. Argentina is also doing more monitoring of entry points with Brazil where there had actually been a "lack of control in recent years," she said.
"We're going to start a program, a strategy, we're taking troops to the border location with Brazil," she said.
Authorities in Bolivia and Brazil did not instantly react to an ask for remark. Brazil's Minister of Justice, Ricardo Lewandowski, king-wifi.win last week welcomed the idea of reinforcing border security in a response to the procedures.
Bullrich, a political veteran who has actually brought Milei key center-ground assistance, said she had actually been won over to the libertarian's more comprehensive economic and social reforms beyond his security focus, which have actually divided Argentines however helped stabilize the country.
The two are former competitors. During the election race, Milei labeled her a leftist "bomb-thrower" - a referral to her time with the youth wing of the Peronist motion - to which Bullrich had shot back that the former economic pundit was emotionally unstable.
Bullrich said the distinctions were now behind them and she and her bloc were assisting him as he seeks to gain seats in legislative mid-term elections set for later this year.
"We're more libertarian than conservative now," she said.
(Reporting by Lucinda Elliott. Additional reporting by Lisandra Paraguassu in Brasilia and Daniel Ramos in La Paz
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Argentina Gang Crackdown has actually Dried Up Cocaine Exports, Security
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