The minister of Interior, Luis Alberto Hebermaintained that homicides dropped “almost 50%” in May compared to the number of these crimes that occurred during the same month of 2022, in a context in which the unsafety is increasingly a matter of concern in Uruguay.
Insecurity is a problem that, after the events that have occurred in recent days —significantly marked by the murder of a supermarket manager ta-ta in Rodó Park—, it has been put back on the table for debate after a few weeks.
However, Minister Heber —who will be summoned again by the broad front to appear in the Parliament for his management of this issue—reduced weight from the drama, and pointed out that the current number of homicides is much lower than that of a year ago. “Almost 50%” less, pointed to Underline. These figures arise from the fact that, according to official numbers, in May 2022 there were 43 murders in the country, while in May 2023, there were 23.
For Heber, “24 hours cannot be representative, when (not even) a month is not representative,” referring to the three homicides in eight hours that occurred in Montevideo last Wednesday.
“Crimes are going down noticeably, and I give the official figures; These are not my figures,” said the Interior Minister. “How can you say that they increased, when they fell? It cannot be said that there is an upward or downward trend, because we need to measure from January to July to have a guideline of whether homicides are falling in Uruguay,” he summarized.
Insecurity, a stain on the image of the government
The performance of the government Luis Lacalle Pou in matters of public security is one of the issues that, today, are most questioned by society, to the point that a 60% of the population disapprovesaccording to the latest survey by the consultancy factum.
Of this total, 35% of those surveyed have a bad opinion and 25% have a very bad opinion. On the other hand, only 4% have a very good opinion about the performance and 31% a good one, totaling 35% positive opinions. The remaining 5% have a neutral opinion or no opinion.
Between the third quarter of 2020 and the first of 2022, positive views on government performance on security ranged from 48% to 56%. The break occurred in the second quarter of 2022 (June measurement), when negative opinions began to be around 60% and positive evaluations around 35%, with very small oscillations over the past year and what which is from 2023.
Source: Ambito
