A group of four heavily armed men released a video on Sunday afternoon threatening Argentine Security Minister Patricia Bullrich and the governor of Santa Fe Province Maximiliano Pullaro, promising a wave of violence in Buenos Aires.
In the roughly two-minute video, the four hooded individuals — described by the Argentine government as members of a narco-terrorist gang — threatened both Bullrich and Pullaro in response to the government’s crackdown on violent gangs in the Santa Fe city of Rosario, a city widely described as the most violent in Argentina.
The men claimed that they are “installed” in Buenos Aires and will start “leaving dead people here,” stressing that the fight for the territory “will never end.” Each of the four men is seen wielding a weapon that Argentine outlets reportedly identified as a FMK3 submachine gun, a Glock pistol, an FAL rifle, and a 12-gauge shotgun.
“This video goes out to you, Pullaro and Bullrich. First of all, tell the people that you had innocent people killed and they set up everything to give more power to your gang,” one of the four men said in the video. “You had innocent people killed, they put everything together to cover up for your gang.”
He continued:
Mafia Governor of Santa Fe, do something for the kids. Don’t let them become delinquents. Make work, school. Stop playing politics with the prisoners.
To you, Mrs. Bullrich, old mafiosa, stop muddying the field and adding fuel to the fire, because we are installed here in Buenos Aires. We are going to start leaving you dead here. The Rosario prosecutors are the real mafia. We are all bought. We are going to start leaving dead people all over the capital of Buenos Aires and Santa Fe. We are going for everything. This will never end.
The Argentine presidency released an official statement minutes after the video began circulating on social media, describing its contents as “a clear terrorist threat” intended to instill terror in the population and in the democratically elected authorities. The Argentine presidency expressed its commitment to coordinating with law enforcement agencies to fight the threats issued in the video.
“From the beginning of our administration, we assumed the responsibility of implementing a new security doctrine: do the crime, pay the time. This approach has led to an 80-percent reduction in homicides in the city of Rosario, and generated multi-million dollar losses for the drug traffickers who had taken control of the city,” the statement read.
“The Office of the President reaffirms its position of zero tolerance for terrorism and organized crime,” it continued. “We will fight to the finish to confront terrorism and thus guarantee the security of all Argentines.”
The official statement warned gangs to “make no mistake: you will never be able to defeat us. In the new Argentina there is no room for armed violence. If they proceed they will be met with the full weight of the law.”
President Javier Milei commented on the matter shortly after the statement was issued through a social media post, stressing, “Crime does not and will never pay in our government. It will not be profitable to be a criminal. Do the crime, pay the time. And we will not budge from there.”
Security Minister Bullrich spoke to the local news channel Todo Noticias on Sunday evening and explained that the video may have been intended as a response after authorities detained seven individuals last month accused of being part of the Juré clan, a dangerous drug-trafficking gang in Rosario.
“The attitude of that video, the threats they make to the population, and the way they communicate are narco-terrorist forms,” Bullrich said. “In recent times, the high-risk sector of the prisons of Ezeiza and Marcos Paz have received very strong threats from the province of Buenos Aires.”
Bullrich stated that police have launched an investigation into the subjects and the government will launch a plan to crack down on drug gangs operating in Argentina’s main cities.
“It has to do with the pursuit of gangs that carry out break-ins, which generate a number of violent actions such as drug trafficking,” Bullrich said. “We have chosen the neuralgic points such as some departments of the province of Buenos Aires, Santa Fe, Córdoba, Tucumán and Mendoza.”
“90 percent of homicides are committed in ten percent of our territory. We have a plan that will be a very strong reinforcement for the security of all Argentines,” she continued. “We tell them to rest assured that we are very determined to fight these gangs.”
Shortly upon taking office in December 2023, Bullrich launched the Plan Bandera (“Flag Plan”), a set of security policies to curb the rampant violence in Santa Fe province, with special emphasis on the crime-plagued city of Rosario. Bullrich and her team also have consulted with authorities from El Salvador throughout the year, who have provided Argentine security officials with technical advice in the fight against violent gangs.
The security policies reportedly led to a 65-percent drop in homicides between January and August compared to the same time period in 2023. According to statements issued by Bullrich at the time, August marked the first month without homicides in Rosario since 2013.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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