Alleged threat to soccer player Ángel Di María triggers fear of drug violence in Rosario

The Argentine city of Rosario on Monday once again woke up paralyzed by the fear of gang violence. The police in the province of Santa Fe, north of Buenos Aires, are investigating a threat to the family of soccer player Ángel Di María. Early Monday morning, a message was thrown at the door of the private neighborhood where the player has a house. According to local media, the message was thrown from a moving car. It told the footballer: “Do not come back again [...] We don’t throw pieces of paper. We throw bullets and dead people.”

Rosario has been experiencing weeks of tension. Criminal gangs have stepped up the violence in the city in response to the government’s decision to tighten controls on gang leaders in prison. While the Di María family received this threat, violence against bus drivers has paralyzed transportation in the city for the second time in a month.

On Sunday, March 10, Marcos Daloia, 39, died after a three-day battle in hospital. He was shot at point-blank range by a hitman while he was driving his bus route. He was the fourth worker to be killed by hitmen in Rosario in a week: two taxi drivers and a gas station were also murdered between March 5 and 11. It was a week of terror in Rosario, which suspended public transportation, school classes and even garbage collection after another worker was threatened. In response to the violence, authorities sent a large deployment of federal security forces to the most violent areas of the city, between the south and the northwest. Last Thursday, the government of President Javier Milei put forward a proposal to reform the Internal Security Law in order to allow the army to take action.

The threat to Di María — who was born in Rosario in 1988 and played for the local club Rosario Central until he was 19 — is not the first soccer player to be targeted by criminal gangs. Last March, a group of hitmen attacked a supermarket belonging to the in-laws of soccer player Lionel Messi, who is also a native of Rosario. They reportedly fired 14 shots at the establishment, which belongs to the family of the soccer player’s wife, Antonela Roccuzzo. The attackers also left a message for the player: “Messi, we are waiting for you. [The mayor, Pablo] Javkin is a drug dealer, he will not keep you safe.”

As with Messi, the threat against Di María comes amid speculation that he may return to Rosario to play for the local club.

The message to Di María targeted the governor of Santa Fe, Maximiliano Pullaro. A few weeks ago, Pullaro’s Cabinet shared images on social media of how drug trafficking offenders in prison were removed from their cells during a search in a local prison. The “Bukele-style” photos — in reference to the exceptional regime with which the president of El Salvador has succeeded in bringing gangs under control — enraged criminal gangs. While violence has been gripping Rosario for decades, it had not reached the center of the city as it did in recent weeks.

Rosario, located 190 miles from Buenos Aires, is the most violent city in Argentina. Its homicide rate — 22 per 100,000 inhabitants — is five times the national average. The violence is fueled by fighting between rival gangs linked to drug dealing. Rosario is a port city that exports a large portion of Argentina’s agricultural products. International drug trafficking groups keep a low profile, unlike the dozens of local drug gangs that fight each another for power. Most of the 200 homicides recorded in Rosario per year are blamed on these turf wars.

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