Gangs Have Destroyed the Peace of Rosario, One of Argentina’s Biggest Cities

The once peaceful Argentinean city of Rosario now faces a wave of gang violence unlike anything it had seen before.

Central American drug gangs have nested in the city, fueling a surge in homicides and leaving dozens of young people dead as they fall victims to turf disputes.

Rosario’s homicide rate skyrocketed to a staggering 22 deaths per 100,000 inhabitants, five times Argentina’s national average. In the past year alone, there have been 259 homicides in the city, according to data from the Public Security Observatory of Santa Fe.

This surge in violence presents a major challenge for Argentina’s populist President, Javier Milei. During his campaign, Milei focused on reviving the struggling economy. Now, he’s forced to confront a whole new crisis. The President vowed to take a hard line, promising to prosecute gang members as terrorists and even deploy the military to take back the streets.

Investigations reveal that most of the killings are orchestrated from inside prisons, where powerful drug lords call the shots. Authorities estimate that 80% of the shootings are planned behind bars.

The violence is concentrated in just 10 neighborhoods, according to the Buenos Aires Times.

To counter this, Rosario governor Maximiliano Pullaro ordered a crackdown on prisons. Police have conducted raids, seized smuggled cellphones and restricted visits.

President Milei deployed 2,000 federal police officers to Rosario, vowing to “lock them [criminals] up, isolate them and take back the streets.” Additionally, government officials are proposing an “anti-mafia” bill similar to legislation used in Italy to dismantle organized crime.

The recent deployment of federal forces comes after a string of killings earlier this month that claimed the lives of four innocent people, including taxi drivers, a bus driver and a gas station employee.

In a chilling development, after the killing of the gas station worker, attackers left a note demanding “rights for prisoners in jail” and threatening further violence against innocent civilians.