Addressing violence associated with organized crime, illegal arms markets, crimes that affect vulnerable people and their rights, are some of the priority points that framed the management report of Attorney General María Cecilia Vranicich, with data which reach April 20, 2024. In this context, he pointed out that – due to the microtrafficking law – the demolition of 19 drug sales bunkers was authorized and there are 3 more with pending authorizations. “We consider it extremely important to provide the MPA with a transparent, objective and efficient criminal prosecution policy, which establishes criteria on certain criminal phenomena,” said the head of the provincial MPA. In addition, in the presentation she made in the Legislature she proposed “reformulating” the disciplinary regime for prosecutors. He also pointed out the increase in homicides in the context of organized crime, which exceed 64 percent of the total.
The report states that the last year “has been part of a highly complex social context, given the marked transformations in the field of criminal conflict in the provincial context, which forced the design and implementation of innovative and relevant changes in its structure, operation and work processes”.
In this sense, indicators such as “homicides in the context of organized crime, outsourcing of violence (hitmen), diversified and violent forms of crime (shootings, extortion, usurpations), high presence of firearms in the commission of crimes, attacks against state institutions and officials, violent events aimed at generating social unrest, formal and informal protection networks of gangs or organized groups. All of them make up a plexus of indicators that we are facing a period of high criminal complexity in the province,” it reads. The report.
Among the main data, the prosecutor indicated that “while in 2014 homicides committed in a context of organized crime represented 29.1% of the total, in 2023 that percentage rose to 64.3%.” In this sense, the report adds that highly harmful violence, particularly in Rosario and Santa Fe, “is closely linked to the circulation of firearms”, the means most used to commit homicides, in very high proportions compared to with other provinces. “It is intended to give priority (…) with a different perspective and that the origin of the weapon is also the subject of investigation, identifying the suppliers, the routes and the dynamics of the diversion of firearms and ammunition.”
In relation to homicides (both completed and attempted), he indicated that “there were 686 in all of 2023”, in the province. In that period, 273 people were convicted of that crime. Meanwhile, the report adds that “as of April 19, 2024, 71 homicides were recorded in the province, 38 in the Rosario department, and 17 in Santa Fe.” At the same time, it is indicated that “the presence of intentional violent deaths of women in the context of organized crime has been recorded in some provincial regions.” From 2015 to 2021, the composition of women in violent deaths remained at around 10%, while in 2022 it reached 22.3% and in 2023, 18.5%.
In his speech, Vranicich dedicated a section to the homicides of workers (two taxi drivers, a bus driver and a beachgoer) committed between March 5 and 9, in Rosario. “As we said, we see a new criminal logic without precedent in the history of the province.”
The report also addresses the phenomenon of crimes ordered from prisons. The data show that it was possible to identify – in pending investigations – the existence of an intramural order in 23 homicides that occurred in 2023.
In relation to crimes committed by public officials, the report points to a criminal prosecution policy “that focuses on crimes committed by public officials (such as the violation of human rights through actions such as homicides, torture, humiliation, etc.) and those linked to corruption networks (both public and private)”.
Within the framework of microtrafficking, linked to the Law of Adherence to the Partial Defederalization of Criminal Jurisdiction in Matters of Narcotic Drugs, a special work team was created within the scope of the Attorney General’s Office. The prosecutor indicated that “as of April 20, 2024, the MPA obtained judicial authorization to carry out the demolition of 19 bunkers, and there are 3 more with pending authorization.” In the same period, “1,158 requests related to microtrafficking were registered.” , there were 104 indictment hearings, with 168 people and 107 were in preventive detention.”
Furthermore, he indicated that of all the people investigated for this crime in the province, 202 were women, of which 33 were in preventive detention. “The criterion for defining progress in an accusation is based on intersectional analysis with a gender perspective; the role assumed by women who are involved in events with other people, the state of vulnerability, the autonomy to decide and the link with who coordinates the activity”.
At the end he referred to the MPA’s link with the Executive and Legislative powers and with the Supreme Court of Justice of the Province. In that sense, he concluded with “an invitation to Santa Fe legislators to reformulate the disciplinary regime of prosecutors and deputy prosecutors, an extreme that constitutes one of the most important challenges for the MPA in the coming years.”
