In this area of Montevideo, the last week was characterized by shootings between criminal gangs fighting for the territorial drug market.

Bursts of gunfire caused fear among neighbors and the closure of businesses and institutions, including a children’s school.

The authorities’ reaction was “forceful”, according to Interior Minister Nicolás Martinelli, who personally accompanied the police operations with the intervention of the Republican Guard, a special task force, and helicopter support.

There were dozens of raids in which more than a dozen individuals, presumed to be members of the two criminal gangs that were confronting each other at gunfire, were placed at the disposal of the prosecutor’s office.

Weapons, ammunition, and an AK-47 rifle magazine were seized, as evidence of the firepower of the criminal gangs.

At the same time, presidential candidates for the October elections are proposing to implement nighttime police raids, an issue that will be submitted to a plebiscite on October 27, the date of the first round of elections. According to the consulting firm Opción, 65% of those polled in a recent survey favor this procedure.

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