This footage was filmed and produced 11 March 2024.

The government of President Javier Milei sent security agents to Rosario, Argentina's third largest city, to respond to what authorities are calling a wave of criminal violence.

In the last week alone there have been four murders: two taxi drivers, a bus driver and a gas station attendant, state-run TV Publica and other local media reported.

A vehicle was also set on fire and several shots were fired at the front of the 15th police station. In response to these events, a strike of taxi and bus drivers was announced, which brought Rosario to a virtual standstill on Monday.

The national government attributes this wave of violence to the drug gangs operating in the city. The ministers of Security of the Nation, Patricia Bullrich, and of Defence, Luis Petri, announced this Monday a series of measures to try to combat this scourge.

In addition, the national government convened a crisis committee for Friday, made up of Bullrich, the governor of Santa Fe, Maximiliano Pullaro, and the security forces. This was done at the governor's request, made on Thursday in a note addressed to the Ministry of Security.

According to the officials, members of the Armed Forces will arrive in Rosario over the next 24 hours to help with the logistics of the operations.

Bullrich announced that this Monday she will send federal forces to attend to the most conflictive areas. She added that they will apply the anti-terrorism law to seek double sentences and that she will send a draft anti-mafia law to Congress to fight organised crime. "We are not going to let Rosario be a land of narco-terrorists," she said.

The authorities are investigating the motives behind the latest killings.

Bullrich described the killings as a "typical revenge" by hitmen linked to drug trafficking. According to Bullrich, the motive for these actions is the isolation regime that the government has implemented in federal and provincial prisons.

SHOTLIST:
1. Various police on the streets of Rosario;
2. Various arrests in Rosario;
3. Various drug seizures in Rosario;
4. Various searches in prisons in Rosario.