Argentina Seeks To Toughen Fight Against Crime

Argentina's government called on the opposition on Wednesday to support a proposed reform of the criminal code to clamp down on crime.



The overhaul of the code of criminal procedure will create "a faster and more efficient tool to fight crime," Cabinet chief Jorge Capitanich said during a televised press conference.



He said the bill will be sent to the lower house on Wednesday to provide more transparency to the judicial system and speed up investigations and trials. It will also allow authorities to deport foreigners found guilty of crimes and bar them from returning for 15 years, he added.



Capitanich asked opposition parties "to quickly approve this bill which they themselves have been asking for."



Crime has become a major concern in Latin America's third-largest economy, along with the impact of a shrinking economy and 40 percent annual inflation on job security and spending power.



A tougher stance on crime was one of the chief demands of two national strikes earlier this year, with more than 1 million workers walking off the job in April and August.



Leon Arslanian, a former justice minister, said on Radio Vorterix that the reform is a "favorable" response to these concerns that will provide Argentinians with more security, including by shortening procedure times so that more crimes can end in sentences.



President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner said late Tuesday in the presentation of the overhaul of the criminal code that prosecutors will get more power to speed up investigations, adding that judges and prosecutors who fail to act accordingly will face reprimands, including the possibility of losing their jobs.



She criticized judges for being too lax, saying that some are to blame for letting criminals off the hook.



She brought up a recent episode when an armed thief on a motorbike tried to steal the backpack from a Canadian tourist, who filmed the incident.



The thief was caught but released almost immediately, and was apprehended only weeks later trying to rob another person.



"A criminal was free and that angered population," Fernandez de Kirchner said.



"We do not want criminals who get arrested and then are released. We want them to be remanded in custody and we want the judiciary to take into account the shock to society that their crimes have caused. We want our society to feel safe," she said.



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