EspañolOn November 13, Germán de los Santos, a journalist based in Rosario, Argentina, received death threats after publishing a series of articles detailing the activity of drug cartels competing for control of the city.
[TITULOS] Narcos amenazaron a un periodista de LA NACION en Rosario por sus notas http://t.co/uz6QFhYBXL pic.twitter.com/qC6BhXMXJC
— LA NACION (@LANACION) November 14, 2014
Early Thursday morning, De los Santos received three calls that made threats against his life, describing his daily movements in detail. He filed a criminal complaint, and the Santa Fe police department has since provided him with protection.
This is not the first time drug traffickers have threatened public figures. In October 2013, narcos attacked the governor of Santa Fe, Antonio Bonfatti. Drug traffickers also threatened Security Minister Raúl Lamberto, and chased former Security Secretary Matías Drivet down a highway between Rosario and Santa Fe in September 2013.
Mauricio Macri, mayor of Buenos Aires, expressed solidarity with De los Santos: “Today we know of this because he is a journalist, but there are entire neighborhoods that are being threatened. Drug trafficking in Argentina has grown significantly. Proactive steps in the fight against drug trafficking must be taken,” Marci said in an interview with journalist Marcelo Longobardi.
Quiero solidarizarme con Germán de los Santos, periodista de La Nación que recibió amenazas de narcos por sus investigaciones.
— Mauricio Macri (@mauriciomacri) November 14, 2014
According to Marci, the Kirchner administration has failed to effectively contain drug trafficking in Argentina, given that Rosario is not the only city in the country that suffers from gang violence.
The Argentinean Association of Journalistic Entities (ADEPA) and the Argentinean Journalism Forum (FOPEA) have expressed concerns over the death threats made against De los Santos, and demanded law enforcement conduct a thorough investigation.
“The insecurity press workers face is something the ADEPA has been speaking out against for some time, and it has once again manifested itself recently. Once again, the issue that undermines freedom of expression is drug trafficking,” ADEPA expressed in a statement.
Rosario: Drug Traffickers Dominate the City
De los Santos has published a number of articles detailing corruption within the Rosario police force, clashes between cartels, and rising violence in the city.
De los Santos’s most recent report covered the trial of four gang members for the murder of three social workers on January 1, 2012.
The social workers were innocent bystanders in a shootout between drug cartels vying for control of the territory. Rosario police are accused of concealing information in the case by claiming the victims were gang members, when, in fact, they were innocent victims celebrating the New Year with friends.
Se inició un juicio clave en Rosario que involucra crímenes y narcotráfico http://t.co/n3WCI7tgcA vía @lanacioncom @germandls
— Germán de los Santos (@germandls) November 13, 2014
Citizens Fear a Wave of Violence
On October 22, a cartel hitman shot and killed former mayoral candidate Luis Bassi. Bassi was the father of an alleged gang leader who is believed to have murdered another capo, Claudio Cantero. Santa Fe authorities fear this crime has triggered a wave of revenge murders among gangs in the area.
With a month and a half to go before the end of the year, there have been 211 murders in Rosario. The 257 murders in 2013 represented a 40 percent increase from 2012. Seventy percent of the victims are men under the age of 35, and 75 percent have been killed with a firearm.
In 2012, the murder rate in Rosario (15 per every 100,000 people) was three times the national average. The Santa Fe Police Workers Union warns that this figure could reach 20 per 100,000 in 2014, the highest in the city’s history.
In an effort to combat this crime wave, former Police Chief Gerardo Chaumont took over as Secretary of Security of Santa Fe in October.
Translated by Alex Clark-Youngblood. Edited by Guillermo Jimenez.