Authorities in Rosario, Argentina are trumpeting record-low homicide rates in the perennially violent drug hub, but ongoing killings in marginalized areas suggest recent security initiatives have contained gang violence rather than addressing its root causes.
Fighting between local criminal outlets made Rosario the central point for drug violence in Argentina for more than a decade. However, recent reforms are credited with causing the homicide rate to fall, making 2024’s rate the city’s lowest since it began collecting data in 2014.
The drop has been most notable in the city center, while violence has continued in peripheral areas of the city.
During the morning of Saturday, July 5, unidentified shooters opened fire on the entrance of a school in the West Zone of Rosario, Argentina. The shooters reportedly left a written threat at the scene demanding changes to prison conditions, according to local outlets. Early in the morning of Sunday, July 6, another shooting in the South West Zone, this time a house, struck two cousins that were playing in the front room. The 13-year-old was killed, while the eight-year-old is currently hospitalized with one bullet wound to the leg and another to the jaw. Later that day, a man opened fire on a bus in the South West, leaving one injured.
Illicit economies and organized crime are the main causes of homicides in Rosario. The motives for these attacks are still being determined, but they awaken memories of violence previously launched by gangs in the city.
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In March 2023, a shooting at a local school and a separate shootout that killed an 11-year-old child and left three children injured fueled outrage and led then-President Alberto Fernández to deploy federal assistance to the city.
“Try to imagine it: they come to threaten the schools,” a resident of Rosario’s Western Zone told InSight Crime. “Most of the schools have police at the children’s entrance and at the exit because these threats are part of the walls. They are still in fear because of these shootings.”
To address the longstanding violence caused by organized crime, authorities have increased police presence and ramped up dismantling of “bunkers” where drugs are dealt. Raids increased 25% in 2024, compared to the previous year, and cases cleared went from 34% to 44%.
But these changes have not come without resistance from organized crime. A bus was shot up in September 2024; the attack was allegedly ordered to intimidate the public. March 2024 saw several attacks, including threats against the family of soccer star Ángel di Maria.
“It was in March [2024] when messages were clearly addressed to the minister and the governor. And clearly the demand was: ‘Stop what you are doing, stop what you are doing in the prisons, stop what you are doing in the streets … if you don’t want more deaths, stop doing this,’” said Esteban Santantino, Secretary of Information Analysis and Management for the Government of Santa Fe’s Operational Criminal Information Center in an Interview with InSight Crime. “And that put us to the test.”
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The government has highlighted the continued low levels of overall crime as a signal that the policies are working.
And while reforms seem to have brought record-levels of peace and security in Rosario’s center, turning its dark reputation around, residents in its peripheries say that organized crime remains a constant threat.
“People are afraid and don’t report anything either. My friend was killed and the family didn’t report it,” said the resident. “They are afraid because [criminals] run the whole neighborhood.”
Featured image: Graffiti on the National University of Rosario campus encouraging resistance amid violence. Source: Christopher Newton