Argentina: Firearms Resolution Opens Door to Abuse

March 25, 2024 11:00AM EDT

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Security Minister Patricia Bullrich shakes hands with security forces deployed to Rosario, Argentina, on Monday, March 11, 2024. The Argentine government sent federal security forces to the city following a wave of killings in public areas. © 2024 AP Photo/Celina Mutti Lovera


(Washington, DC) - A new executive branch resolution broadening the scope for security agents’ use of firearms in Argentina runs counter to basic human rights standards and opens the door to abuse, Human Rights Watch said today.

On March 14, 2024, Security Minister Patricia Bullrich approved the resolution citing increased gang violence in the city of Rosario, Santa Fe province, which Human Rights Watch visited in late February. The resolution contains loopholes and ambiguities that could allow security officers to employ firearms in an unacceptably broad set of circumstances. It applies to all national security forces, including the national police and the national penitentiary service.

“People in Rosario and elsewhere in Argentina should be able to go about their daily lives without fear due to insecurity,” said Juanita Goebertus, Americas director at Human Rights Watch. “To achieve that, the government should be strengthening judicial capacity and preventing gang recruitment, not opening the door to excessive use of force.”

The resolution is an extended version of another resolution that Bullrich passed in 2018, when she was also Security Minister. Human Rights Watch had called for its modification as it ran counter to international human rights standards.

More:
https://www.hrw.org/news/2024/03/25/argentina-firearms-resolution-opens-door-abuse