The National Government has to take the prisoners because they are theirs. As long as they were fulfilling the quotas, we made progress; then they stopped complying and we complained," said Wolff. In support of the Minister of Security of the City, and in statements to Radio Rivadavia, Gabino Tapia, head of the Justice portfolio, indicated that "it is important to solve the problem, but the responsibility lies with the National Government": "We detain those who commit the crime, then they are at the disposal of the Nation," he explained. "We need to ease the number we have in the police stations," Tapia added.
At the same time, Julián Curi, undersecretary for Penitentiary Affairs, spoke in favor of Bullrich and stated that thinking she is doing "politicking or small politics" regarding security "is to disregard the minister's trajectory." "Since we took office, the Penitentiary Service has absorbed more than 6,500 inmates, whom we have removed from the police stations of the City."
The fight over prisoner escapes between the Nation and the City continues to escalate. The week began with a letter from the National Minister of Security, Patricia Bullrich, to the head of the Government, Jorge Macri, criticizing the actions of her counterpart in the City, Waldo Wolff. Subsequently, yesterday, the city minister presented himself at the Legislature to address the ongoing issue regarding detainees who regularly escape from police stations.
"With resources, with institutions, and when Patricia commits, progress is made. We know there is a general capacity situation in the system and that the issue of Buenos Aires City is a problem," he stated to Radio Rivadavia AM 630. Along the same lines, he reported that the citizens of Argentina "have invested 60 million dollars in the construction of a prison that is on the premises of Marcos Paz," which is the responsibility of the Government of Buenos Aires City and should have been completed in 2020, during the management of Horacio Rodríguez Larreta.
"We have the order from the minister to advance, by any means, with the transfer of the responsibilities that correspond to Buenos Aires City. Security and Justice work hand in hand. We have been working on a penitentiary system for a year and we are going to create a center for our detainees," Curi said.
In his defense, he argued that the prisoners do not belong to his jurisdiction, but are "of the Nation." "I have a lot of issues to praise the minister, but on this subject, we do not agree. Only 5% of detainees are judged by the City. We have 2,459 detainees in police stations, which are transit places."
"We are neither friends nor enemies of Bullrich. We need people to know that we are not non-compliant with what belongs to us; we are fulfilling it and exceeding it," he pointed out. For his part, Wolff recalled yesterday in the Legislature that in 2020, they presented "a collective legal remedy" that is in the Supreme Court and has 16 instances. "Sixteen judges ordered the National Government to take the prisoners from the boroughs," he stated.
However, in the letter sent to Jorge Macri, Bullrich maintained that, from the Nation, they had "the legal obligation to receive 60/70 prisoners weekly and voluntarily," and since Javier Milei's assumption, they have started receiving "90 inmates weekly." "We expect that in their capacity as Head of Government and other political authorities of the City, they take on the responsibilities that correspond to ensure public safety for the citizens, complying with the mandate granted by their own Constitution," concluded the minister.
