The recent announcement of the Minister of Economy, Luis “Toto” Caputoon the incentive to the use of unstalled dollars lit an alarm signal in Santa Fe. While the Casa Rosada is committed to reactivating the economy by appealing to the assets that millions of Argentines still hide “under the mattress”, the government of the government of Maximiliano Pullaro He positioned himself firmly: he is not willing to make this opening be a highway for drug trafficking finances.
The Santa Fe response soon arrived. With the antecedent of having been the epicenter of narco violence in recent years, The province announced the creation of an interministerial committee to prevent criminal organizations from taking advantage of informal laundering. “We cannot allow a criminal group to have money to send to kill people,” the Minister of Security, Pablo Cococcioni, noticed.
The one percent dilemma
Both cococcioni and their pair of economy, Pablo Olivaresthey acknowledged that the spirit of the national measure – to injure dollars in the formal economy without penalty or taxes – can benefit most citizens. But they stressed that There is a “one percent” of potential beneficiaries that cannot be ignored: Those who finance crimes, buy weapons, pay hitmen or wash drug trafficking profits.
“We totally agree with the need to boost the economy, but we also have to look at the risk,” said Olivares. Specifically, Santa Fe seeks to prevent one percent from making deeper roots in the legal circuit, using the benefits of money laundering as a screen to expand its influence.
To face this risk, the Santa Fe government will activate a Patrimonial and Financial Disruption Program. The strategy is centered on the monitoring and blocking of economic movements of judicial or administratively related persons and groups. It will be articulated from the Undersecretariat of Intelligence and the Provincial Directorate of Patrimonial Information, and will combine judicial, administrative and financial data in real time.
Measures will include, for example, Prevent people under investigation from drug trafficking registering commercial companiesbuy real estate or access the provincial State enabling. “We can fill the streets with patrols, build prisons, but if we do not dismantle the economic power of organized crime, this war will always be incomplete,” said Cococcioni.
A state with scanner
Santa Fe had already marked his dissent during the previous launderingwhen demanded a 2% tax on regularized assets exceeding 100,000 pesos. So, the slogan was clear: “Those who come with the money of money laundering are not heroes, in Santa Fe we will pass the scanner.” That approach is now reinforced.
Cococcioni insisted that it is not criminal measures, but of administrative actions based on legal. “We are not sanctioning, but postponing or blocking state services until the origin of the funds is justified. If there are founded suspicions, access is restricted,” he explained.
Santa Fe concern is enhanced before what they consider a dangerous relaxation in national controls. “These measures are for those who did not enter the previous laundering. They impose the obligation to be more attentive than ever,” said Olivares. The political background is evident. While Nation offers incentives without major filters, Santa Fe reinforces its autonomy in the field of safety and economic control. The conflict between fiscal needs and crime prevention becomes a new tension field between provincial and national governments.
Narcodollars under the magnifying glass
In short, Santa Fe’s decision aims to prevent Caputo’s strategy – to see laundering as “a historical reparation” for dollar holders outside the system – becomes a Trojan horse for criminal organizations. The warning is clear: every ticket that wants to enter the legal circuit will be scanned if it comes from a gray area.
“We have to make the economic objective compatible with the duty to protect public safety,” concluded the ministers. The province that has suffered the most narco violence seems determined that, this time, money does not run without control. And that the dollars, even if they come from the mattress, cannot buy impunity.
By rn
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