AMERICA/ARGENTINA - Rosario: the city of 'soldier' children involved in drugs and crime

Tuesday, 20 September 2016 minors  

Internet

Rosario (Agenzia Fides) - Drugs and guerrillas continue to involve an increasing number of children recruited for trafficking and espionage in the Argentine city of Rosario. It is a lawless territory, where vendettas among drug gangs, hitmen, police chiefs involved in murders and thugs follow one another. It is one of the most important cities of Argentina, which between 2010 and 2014 doubled the murder rate reaching 20.8% per 100 thousand inhabitants. Located in Santa Fe province, 300 kilometers from Buenos Aires, with a population of around one million inhabitants, it has become the emblematic and most violent point of the Argentine territory, with the production and sale of drugs.
According to information sent to Fides, drug traffickers in Rosario have "their" bunker neighborhoods, they sell drugs in the guard towers of the slums, guarded by those that the criminals call "soldiers", that is to say, children under 16 years of age. These young victims earn 40 euro a day and have the task to raise the alarm about possible dangers. The gangs are guided by very powerful clans, like that of the 'Los Monos'. Bolivian cocaine arrives in town by land, while Paraguayan marijuana by river. Most is sent abroad, as well as in the neighborhoods of Rosario, where local gangs are increasingly involved in a brutal war for the control of the territory. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 20/09/2016)


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