One-year-old baby shot dead in Montevideo: conflict between criminal gangs
A one-year-old child died after being struck by a bullet to the head in the Colón neighbourhood of Montevideo. The attack was directed at his father, who is linked to organised crime.
Baby killed in Colón: father was the target of territorial dispute
A 24-year-old man was driving a red car through the Colón neighbourhood in the north-west of Montevideo in the afternoon of Monday when his vehicle was hit by at least seven shots from another car. His one-year-old son, whom he was holding, was struck by a bullet to the head. The father, wounded in an arm, shoulder and ear, immediately took him to a nearby medical centre, where the child died minutes after arriving.
According to infobae.com, the case shocked Uruguay and had repercussions at the highest levels of government.
Father, target of the attack
Investigators have no doubt that the target of the attack was the child's father, not the baby. The man has a record for carrying a weapon, according to investigation data cited by the Teledoce news programme. He was arriving home when shots began coming from the attacking vehicle.
The car from which the shots were fired was found early Tuesday morning, abandoned in Verdisol, a neighbourhood neighbouring Colón. The fingerprints found in that vehicle are considered key to clarifying the crime.
A zone marked by criminal conflict
The Colón neighbourhood has a recent history of violence linked to territorial disputes between criminal groups. The family of the dead child is linked to arms and drug trafficking, according to data provided by the investigation.
On the same corner where the baby's killing occurred, days earlier a 23-year-old young man, a friend of the father, had been killed. The week before, shots had also been fired at the man's own house. Telemundo news on Channel 12, which on Tuesday offered new details of the incident, noted that these events are signs of a new territorial dispute in the area.
Government reaction
Interior Minister Carlos Negro personally travelled to the crime scene. At 1.16 in the early morning he posted on social media X: "Driven by deep indignation, which will never be powerlessness, know that none of us will stop until we find those responsible for the murder of a child barely one year old. Without mercy for the guilty, we will continue working with more determination than ever to halt the manifestations of violence generated by organised crime."
President Yamandú Orsi referred to the case on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference and described the incident as "terrible". "There is no adjective. There is one thing that is clear: we are not going to ease up. We must not ease up. Far from being intimidated, what we must do is accelerate. It is of little use knowing what the motive was. The point is that it is an innocent person, a child…," he declared.
When asked what he considers to be the system's failing, Orsi pointed to "violence that is growing" and cited as an example the murder of Venezuelan delivery worker Juan Carlos Mendoza, stabbed on a street in the centre of Montevideo following a traffic dispute.
Police reinforcement in Colón
In light of the risk that the conflict between gangs might intensify, the Police reinforced patrols in the Colón neighbourhood. The investigation into the crime is considered a priority by the authorities.
Source: Google News UY — Crime