2008
ARGENTINA DOMESTIC SECURITY BRIEFING
Lic. MARTIN VERRIER ECONOMY & POLITICS OVERVIEW In 2001 Argentina suffered an extreme economic crisis, and the NGP fell more than 40 %. In 2003 Nestor Kirchner , form the Partido Justicialista was elected, and the economy started its recovery. During the ruling period of Nestor Kirchner, Argentina’s economy grew at an 10% yearly, sustained by high agriculture revenues retentions, exports, moderated fiscal spending and high taxes. President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, from the centre - left wing sector of ruling party Partido Justicialista (Peronismo) , was elected in December 2007 with 44,9 % of the votes, followed by Elisa Carrio , form Coalicion Civica, with 22,9. Cristina Fernandez is former president Nestor Kirchner`s wife, giving this new administration a strange feeling of continuity. Moreover, almost all ministers continued in their positions with the new elected president. Argentina’s Capital City is currently governed by centre right winged Mauricio Macri , whose main program in security is launching a local police force. The new administration is fighting a real annual inflation of almost 25 % (while the official index shows an inflation of 12%). Foreign direct investment reached U$ 5000 during 2006, not enough to achieve sustained growth trough the next years. Public image of the newly elected president falls steeply as she confronts Argentina’s agriculture and cattle sectors, in addition to middle and high class sectors demanding less corruption and inflation, more security. SECURITY FORCES Security forces in Argentina may SECURITY FORCES be divided into two groups : on one hand , strictly police forces such as the POLICIA FEDERAL : 42000 Policia Federal and other provincial police PROVINCES POLICE : 133.000 forces; and on the other hand , GENDAMERIA: 23.000 paramilitary forces such as Gendarmeria, PREFECTURA: 19000 Prefectura and Policia Seguridad TOTAL : 217.000 Aeronautica. Military foces are not allowed by the constitution to intervene in domestic security missions. Total police forces are estimated to be 175.000. Argentina´s federal police is called Policia Federal. It responsible of fighting and investigate federal crimes, such as drug smuggling, organized crime and terrorism. It is also
responsible for the security of Argentina’s capital city, Buenos Aires. It has a Budget of almost A$ 2000 million and a 41.622 force, of which 20000 are destined to provide security to the city of Buenos Aires. Other provinces forces sum up 133.000 totally, divided into 23 provinces, among the most important, the Policia de la Provincia de Buenos Aires, with almost 53000. The Prefectura consists of Argentina’s coast guard, with almost 19000 personnel. The Gendarmeria is the force in charge of controlling and patrolling the borders. It has almost 23000. Moreover, Gendarmeria personnel are deployed to control routes and highways. In addition they are now frequently called by judges to intervene in crimes where police forces are suspected of being involved. The total number of Gendameria force is approximately 23000. Police forces in Argentina are very badly paid, with a base salary of between 250 and 400 us dollars. Moreover, they are undertrained and are rarely motivated by their political leaders. They are ill equipped and there is a high level of corruption that affects both high rank officers and low ranked ones. CRIME Argentina is not considered STATISTICS - NATIONAL one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America. Crime figures, in spite of Total Crimes 2006 : 828730 being suspected of being inaccurate, Total Homicidas FY 2005: 2115 are far away from those from countries Total Homicides FY 2006 : 2052 like Brazil, Mexico, Colombia or Variation : - 2,98%. Venezuela for example, all of them with Quantity per 100000 inhabitants : 5,2 homicide rates of at least 30 per 100.000 inhabitants. Homicide rate for Argentina (2006) is 5.2 per 100.000 inhabitants.1 Higher crime rates were recorded right after the great economic crisis of 2001. In 2002 a total of 1340529 crimes were registered, establishing a new record. Since then, crime rates have shrunk till 2006, when they almost stabilized in current levels, recording and increase for 2006.
1
El Salvador (43,4), Brasil (31), Guatemala (23,1) o Nicaragua (21,3).
CRIME EVOLUTION YEARLY 1.400.000 1.340.529
1.350.000 1.300.000
1.270.725
1.224.293
1.250.000 1.243.827
1.178.530
1.200.000
1.206.946
1.150.000 1.100.000
1.123.788
1.050.000 1.000.000 YEAR 2000
YEAR 2001
YEAR 2002
YEAR 2003
YEAR 2004
YEAR 2005
YEAR 2006
In spite of recording higher general crime levels, homicides levels decreased since 2002, achieving a tolerable rate of 5.2/100.000.
TOTAL HOMICIDE EVOLUTION 4000 3500 3000
Uruguay
2500
Chile
2000
#ยกREF!
S E D IC M H L A O T
1500 Argentina
1000 500 0 2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Criminal activity is not usual in the countryside, but is in big cities and its surroundings, where crime rates raise steeply. In spite of having low general crime rates some parts of Buenos Aires province are considered to be extremely dangerous, especially Buenos Aires City surroundings and La Plata. Buenos Aires province registered 802 homicides during 2006, a rate of 7,2 per 100.000, almost the double than Buenos Aires city , which registered 116, a rate of 3, 83 per 100.000 inhabitants. Other cities with significant crime rates are Neuquen, Mendoza, Catamarca and Salta.
STATISTICS – BUENOS AIRES PROVINCE Total Homicidas FY 2006 : 802 Quantity per 100000 inhabitants : 7,2 Total Crimes (2006) : 238.379 Most Dangeorus Districts (HOMICIDE RATES): San Vicente 12/100000 San Fernando 11/100000 JosÊ C Paz 11/100000 Zarate 10/100000 Carlos Casares 9,2/100000 Ensenada 9,1/100000 Carlos Tejedor 8,7/100000 Lomas de Zamora 8,6/100000
CRIME RATE PER PROVINCE Q/100.000 INHABITANTS 2
CRIME RATE Q/100.000
8000 7000 6000 5000 4000 3000 2000 1000 0
HOMICIDE RATE Q/100.000 INHABITANTS 3 80 70 60
URUGUAY
50
CHILE
40
VENEZUELA COLOMBIA
30
ARGENTINA
20 8,23
10
9,32
7,77
6,1
5,71
5,2
0 2001
2002
2003
2004
2005
2006
Car theft is an important issue in what refers to security in Argentina. Total car sales have tripled in the last 5 years. This has stimulated the illegal commerce of car parts, most of them supplied by criminal organizations that specialize in car robbery. From 2001 2 3
SNIC SNIC
till 2004 , car theft shrunk steadily . Since 2004, car theft rose again, and is still rising again on a 12 % yearly basis, according to car insurance companies.4 TOTAL QUANTITY OF STOLEN CARS 90.000 80.000 70.000 60.000 50.000 40.000 30.000 20.000 10.000 0
YE AR
20 YE 0 AR 2 YE 20 0 AR 3 20 YE 0 AR 4 20 YE 0 AR 5 YE 20 0 AR 6 20 07
QUANTITY
Terrorism is not a regular menace nowadays, but stroke the county twice, in 1992 and 1994. In that case, Iranian backed Hezbollah was identified as the responsible for the attack on the Israeli embassy in the first case and the AMIA in the second case.. Nowadays the US State Department is concerned about the presence of Hezbollah members in the so called “Tri Border Area”, shared border between Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay. Kidnapping rates are not officially published nowadays. Nonetheless, figures for sophisticated kidnapping are not high, especially when compared to Mexico, Brazil or Colombia. Short time abduction is more common. In that case criminals take their hostage to ATM`s to extract money and then release them or ask for a low amount of money as a ransom. Anther methodology commonly used by criminals is the false kidnapping”, TOTAL KIDNAPPINGS5 500 450 400 350 300 250 200 150 100 50 0 YEAR 2002
4 5
YEAR 2003
YEAR 2004
YEAR 2006
www.cesvi.com.ar http://www.lanacion.com.ar/Archivo/nota.asp?nota_id=946674
YEAR 2007
DRUG PRODUCTION AND TRAFFIC In relation to illegal drugs production, Argentina is still considered a transit country. There are no Coca plantations and almost irrelevant marihuana plantations. Synthetic drug production is also very small, according to the UN. 6 In spite of this, the inability of cocaine producers in Bolivia to get chemical products to produce cocaine chlorhidrate in Bolivia, forces them to finish the process in Argentina; therefore there is an increasing detection of improvised drug processing laboratories, especially in Buenos Aires province. As a result, there is also an increasing number of people consuming non refined cocaine, locally known as “Paco”, which has a terrible effect on health and causes irreversible mental illness. Argentina’s borders are extremely leaky to drug smugglers in transit to Europe and North America due to its large border, relaxed control and corruption. The following are the statistics of “Paco” consumers : COCAINE SEIZURES IN KG.7 6.000 5.000 4.000 3.000 2.000 1.000 0 YEAR 2003 YEAR 2004 YEAR 2005 YEAR 2006 YEAR 2007
6 7
http://www.unodc.org/documents/wdr/WDR_2007/WDR%202007_Spanish_web.pdf http://www.clarin.com/diario/2006/01/30/policiales/g-04001.htm