Patricia Bullrich, minister of Security between December 2015 and 2019, was one of the members of the Cabinet of Mauricio Macri that more visibilizó the crack existing policy in Argentina. Part of the population applauded his policy of mano dura against the crime, and their unconditional backing to the security forces. The other hand he criticized it for the same reason, especially when defended proceedings contentious as that of police officer Luis Chocabar, who was shot in the back by a thief who was fleeing from a robbery stabbed a tourist. His successor, Sabina Frederic, is situated in the antipodes. In their first two weeks in office has repealed protocols approved by Bullrich, and has announced that he will ask to review several cases, including the death of the prosecutor Alberto Nisman.
Repealing the res. 956 that allowed you to shoot without giving the alto voice, contradicted the principles of proportionality, rationality, uniqueness, and progressiveness in the use of firearms and the legal principle of self-defense which protects both officials and the population.
— Sabina Frederic (@SabinaFrederic) December 24, 2019
Frederic, anthropologist and researcher of the national Council of scientific and technical research (Conicet), gave up back with the authorisation of the police to shoot without aggression upon or have given the alto voice. Also banned the use of electric taser guns except for the special forces and put an end to the order of documentation in the streets and train stations. The measure criminalizes the workers by using an excess of controls, unnecessary and unjustified”, he justified the decision published on Tuesday in the Official Gazette, which leaves without effect the regulations approved by Bullrich. “It is a tool that puts at the disposal of the police and security forces the possibility of strengthening criteria of selection and discrimination”, added the official text.
The minister designated by Alberto Fernandez has also marked distances on the fight against drug trafficking. The macrismo what became one of their flags, and during his management shot drug seizures and the number of detainees, with a record of 43.194 this 2019. However, for Frederic the policy of its predecessor, and lacks clear outcomes, and argues that “the persecution has been mainly on the narcocomenudeo and consumers.”
we Present the balance of the 4 years management. We change a paradigm: we take care of the victim rather than protect the victim. We went down the killings, crime and kidnappings. We fight as hard as ever against the drug trade. https://t.co/pdVDSK7xqr pic.twitter.com/Fvr0O7rRwI
— Patricia Bullrich (@PatoBullrich) December 3, 2019
Frederic has anticipated that it will convene a debate to move forward in the legalization of the consumption and production of cannabis, as other countries have done as in neighboring Uruguay. “The cost to the State of the persecution of marijuana trafficking is very high also. And many of us know that the damage that produces the marijuana is lower than alcohol, then you have to try to go by that path,” said the minister on Radio Metro days ago.
In its review of policies Bullrich, Frederic, from the agency’s human rights Centre of Social Studies and Legal studies (CELS), has been criticized with special hardness the action of the military police, the Gendarmerie, in emblematic cases such as the death of the prosecutor Alberto Nisman and the craftsman’s Santiago Maldonado.
Maldonado disappeared on August 1, 2017, during the violent eviction by the police mapuches in Patagonia and his body was not located until 78 days later. The autopsy determined had no signs of violence and that he drowned in the river where he was found, but Frederic complaint that the operation of eviction “was poorly made” and gather information to provide to the Justice.
Nisman was found dead in the bathroom of their house, a shot in the head on January 18, 2015. Four days before, had denounced to Justice to the then president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for alleged cover-up of the perpetrators of the attack against the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) that caused 85 deaths the July 18, 1994. The Federal Chamber of Buenos Aires ruled three years later that Nisman was murdered and was based, among other evidence, the expertise carried out by the Gendarmerie. Frederic announced that he would ask to review this test measure a time change of the dome of the security forces.
Bullrich has not hesitated in labeling “aberration” the statements of the minister about the case Nisman and has urged the Gendarmerie to disobey what they considered to be “an unlawful order” by proceed of a member of the Executive and not of Justice. Since the courts have ruled out any review, but despite the relevance of the case, the investigation of Nisman is not progressing. Within A few weeks of fulfilled five years of his death Nisman, no suspects or perpetrators.
