Argentina Combats Drug Trafficking

The Argentine government announced the sending of federal forces to the city of Rosario to confront drug trafficking, after four murders of civilians in recent days, perpetrated by "narcoterrorists" according to the executive.

"Following a request from the governor of the province of Santa Fe Maximiliano Pullaro the Federal Police, the National Gendarmerie, the Naval Prefecture, the Airport Security Police and the Penitentiary Service will assist the Santa Fe police in their fight against drug trafficking," the Office of the President of the Argentine Republic, Javier Milei, published on the social network.

The measure includes sending the Armed Forces to provide support "always within the terms of the Internal Security Law," according to the same source.

Although the Argentine Armed Forces cannot intervene directly, the exception contemplated by the legislation is when they participate to "support internal security operations" by affecting "their arsenals, quartermaster, health, veterinary, construction and transportation services, as well as of engineering and communications elements".

The government's announcement comes after a series of acts of violence in this city next to the Paraná River, located 300 km north of Buenos Aires and the third largest in Argentina with 1.3 million inhabitants, where two taxi drivers, a bus driver and a service station employee were murdered this week.

The drug attacks respond, according to the Santa Fe government, to the tightening of the detention conditions of high-profile prisoners in the province's prisons.

In two months of administration, Pullaro has received 25 threats that he attributes to his heavy-handed policy in the city with the worst homicide rate nationwide: 22 per 100,000 inhabitants, five times higher than the national average.