Three Marines Killed at Montevideo Naval Base: Former Serviceman Detained
Three marine infantry personnel were shot dead at the Fortaleza del Cerro base in Montevideo. A former marine has been charged as the primary suspect.
"Unprecedented" crime at Fortaleza del Cerro naval base shakes Uruguay
Three marine infantry personnel aged 22, 25 and 31 years old were shot dead in the early hours of Sunday while on guard duty at a communications antenna complex at the Fortaleza del Cerro naval base in Montevideo. According to bbc.com, the Uruguayan press described the act as a "unprecedented" criminal act since the return to democracy.
Their colleagues discovered the scene when they arrived at the outpost at 8:00 hours for the changing of the guard. Two of the marines were found at the same guard post with gunshot wounds to the head; the third was lying on a mattress, according to local media. The regulation weapons of all three soldiers were not present at the location, although their body armour and long weapons were.
Former marine detained as primary suspect
Uruguayan police arrested three people linked to the case on Monday, including a former marine who had retired just a few months earlier. Journalist Gabriel Pereyra from VTV Noticias explained to BBC Mundo that the infantry personnel let him enter the outpost because they knew him and did not suspect his presence.
The main hypothesis points to this former marine being the one who killed the soldiers in order to steal their weapons and sell them. At the location where the arrests were made, one of the three stolen weapons was found; it is believed that the other two were sold hours after the crime.
Defence Minister Javier García described what happened as a "criminal atrocity". President Luis Lacalle Pou declared a period of national mourning and rejected any normalisation of violence: "We are not willing to accept violence becoming normalised in society, we have repeated this time and again and from the government we will use all constitutional and legal tools available to deploy the force of the State to repel aggression against Uruguayan citizens and those living in our country".
Drug trafficking, a discarded but revealing hypothesis
Among the initial lines of investigation was also the possibility of an attack by drug traffickers, which in itself reflects the extent to which organised crime has gained weight in the country. Pereyra told BBC Mundo: "A few years ago we would not have thought that drug traffickers could have done this because we would not have thought that narcos had that power in Uruguay. Today, if the investigation was heading in that direction, it is because we are aware that drug trafficking has infiltrated society and the violence it is exerting in some sectors is tremendous".
The same journalist considered the theft hypothesis to be, despite the horror, the "best" of the possible scenarios: "If it had been a message from the narcos, we would already be at a very significant level of drug trafficking power".
Uruguay and sustained increase in violence
The triple homicide occurs in a context of escalating violence that contrasts with the image of stability for which Uruguay was recognised for decades. In 2018 alone, homicides increased by 45%, armed robbery by 53% and theft without violence by 23% compared to the previous year, according to data from the Ministry of the Interior.
The same weekend as the crime at the naval base saw six other violent deaths in the country, including two children murdered by their father, who subsequently took his own life.
According to experts cited by bbc.com, the increase in crime is partly due to Uruguay becoming an exit port for drugs produced in Colombia, Peru and Bolivia. The newspaper El País notes that since 2016 there have been robberies and attacks on barracks, and that on 30 October 2019 all units of the National Army were placed on alert to prevent the theft of military weapons.
On 9 May last, a bomb exploded in the car park of the Anti-Drug Brigade headquarters in an incident also described as "unprecedented" by the Uruguayan press. No victims were reported, but there was material damage.
Source: Google News UY — Crime