When Alberto Fernandez and Omar Perotti they met, too much water had already passed under the bridge. the governor of Santa Fe made strong claims to the Nation for the lack of collaboration in the face of the escalation of violence in Rosario, a product of drug trafficking, and Hannibal Fernandezthe Minister of Security, responded with thick ammunition.
As the accusations came and went from Santa Fe to Federal Capital, in rosary beads the killings continued. After a 2022 with a record of murders, in January and February the violence continued to escalate. The President and the Governor had no room for maneuver: they had to meet.
The meeting on Monday the 13th served to lower the tension and lay out a joint work agenda: coordinate the distribution of federal agents and accelerate projects to strengthen the federal Justice, which has the same resources as 40 years ago. But mainly it served to stop the short circuits between the leaders. For now, the political storm has passed, although the hurricane caused by the wave of insecurity still remains.
crosses. For a week Perotti and Anibal Fernandez insults were exchanged. The governor, who changed his Security Minister for the fourth time, had requested urgent help from Casa Rosada and the national official replied on Twitter: “His statements are astonishing. The national government has not stopped investing funds to help reverse Rosario’s problems, which have been going on for 20 years. The results are visible”. That would be the start of the battle.
Perotti replied: “He still does not understand the reality of Rosario.” And he added: “If this is all the help that the Nation can give us, we must tell them that it is not enough.” Despite being of the same political color and having shared many moments during the last electoral campaigns, Perotti crossed paths with the central government on different occasions. “The governor is claiming with the same determination with which he demanded the payment of the co-participation debt,” says the Minister of Public Management, Marcos Corach. And he adds: “We don’t lack effort, what happens is that many of the efforts we made were not known.”
This week, all the discussion took place in the public arena. Because Aníbal Fernández did not let the counterattack from Santa Fe pass and answered again: “He says that I am the one who does not understand. The one who doesn’t understand is him. He is his province, he is his police. Why doesn’t he ask the other 22 governors how they resolve the issue with their police officers? Because none of them have problems, ”he chicaneed him. And he added: “We help him in the best way.”
Perotti had the last word, before meeting with the President. Through the official provincial communication channel, he spread a high-voltage message: “Aníbal Fernández asks us that the provinces take charge of federal crimes such as drug trafficking. That shows that the national government is abandoning Rosario.” He then concluded: “The only thing left is to ask Santa Fe to guard the country’s borders so that weapons or drugs do not enter.”
In the midst of the dispute with Casa Rosada, the Minister of the Interior, “Wado” de Pedro, one of the possible K candidates for the presidency, landed in Santa Fe. There was a meeting with Perotti with the issue of drug violence as one of the main axes. In Balcarce 50 they took note.
Perotti was not the first to slip that Rosario seemed “abandoned” by the government. A year ago, the mayor of that city had suggested it after a meeting with, again, Aníbal Fernández. “He is looking for political advantages. Enough, by God, we are working piecemeal and sending more troops,” the Security Minister protested on Twitter. The radical Pablo Javkin would respond in the same way: “I defend my neighbors. Say what you want but come, bring the detachment that was announced. I tell you from the bottom of my heart: the troops that are there are not enough”. In 2023 the claim remains the same.
Calm. Perotti’s visit to the President brought some calm. On Monday the 13th they were alone at Casa Rosada for an hour. There were invoices for the accusations made and a series of commitments to work on in the future. As had happened with Aníbal Fernández, the talk got rough when discussing the number of federal troops in Santa Fe. The Minister of Security says there are more than 3,500, but the governor doubts. “It’s that he doesn’t know how many people we have working undercover, in intelligence,” says the national official. Perotti considers that Nation does not make its maximum effort in this regard. For albertismo, the governor is trying to separate himself from responsibilities that are their own. That is why they insist on the idea of national “help”: they can collaborate, but they want him to take charge of the matter.
In fact, from Rosario they make a similar claim: “The governor let go of Rosario’s hand,” denounced the socialist provincial deputy Clara García, widow of Miguel Lifschitz. The opposition to Peronism often points out that they won the election with a slogan that they are far from fulfilling today: “peace and order”, promised Perotti. He didn’t get it.
Another decision by the governor that was not well received at Casa Rosada was to appoint Claudio Brilloni as Minister of Security. Not because of his lack or lack of his skills, but because of his past. On February 8, Perotti swore in the brand new official, who was commander of the Gendarmerie during the management of Patricia Bullrich in Security.
For a moment, politics ran the axis of the dispute between Nación and Santa Fe. It is that the appointment of Agustín Rossi as Alberto’s chief of staff was considered by some as a provocation. “El Chivo” and Perotti have a bad relationship, after they faced each other in the 2021 PASO and the governor beat him to allying with Cristina. He, coincidentally, who always considered himself loyal to the former president, was hurt by the move. Now they might have to work together because of Rosario’s situation.
War. While the leadership seeks solutions and distributes blame, the violence does not stop. There were 35 homicides in the first 45 days of the year. A policeman was killed while working and a young man was randomly kidnapped and murdered “to give a drug message”, according to the Justice.
These are not the only violent events: in the last week a man on a bicycle shot at the front of the 32nd Police Station and was not arrested. They fired at banks, television channels and judicial offices. Even politicians must change their agendas for these kinds of events. Mayor Javkin had to suspend the inauguration of a bike path because they shot at a health center. The lack of control is total.
Fed up with what is happening, residents held a massive march with candles on Monday the 13th. “We live in fear and nobody does anything,” protests Ezequiel Lowden, a leader in a group made up of relatives of victims. They camped for a day in front of the Rosario headquarters of the governorate and, after being received by the governor and some of his ministers, they packed up their things and gave them ten days of truce. If nothing changes, they promise they’ll be back.
Beyond politics, other voices are raised against what is happening in Santa Fe. After a federal judge and a prosecutor were threatened in Venado Tuerto, the president of the Supreme Court, Horacio Rosatti from Santa Fe, asked Aníbal Fernández protection for its employees. From Security they answered that they will intensify their custody. Even the Church manifested itself. The Archdiocese of Rosario issued a harsh statement on Wednesday the 15th entitled: “An injustice that cries out to heaven.” “Violence anguishes us, restricts our freedom and puts us in mourning,” he says. And he continues: “Injustice grows due to the lack of responses from the different levels of the State represented by magistrates and officials legally appointed in democracy and whose power is delegitimized by an exercise that does not generate lucid, determined and courageous public policies”.
After the short circuits, the political leadership signed peace at Casa Rosada. Now, jointly, they will have to achieve the most important thing: stop the violence and drug trafficking in Rosario.
