Authorities react to shooting attack on Lionel Messi's in-laws' business
Judicial authorities have stated that the shooting attack on the supermarket belonging to Lionel Messi's in-laws in Argentina sought to "generate intimidation" and "public impact," rather than directly threaten the football player or his family.
"It is clear that (the attack) seeks to generate shock. Beyond the national and international public repercussions, it generates intimidation," said Jorge Baclini, the chief prosecutor of the province of Santa Fe, where Rosario is located, the largest port in the country with the highest homicide rate, in an interview with Cadena 3 radio.
According to official data, Rosario had a homicide rate of 22 per 100,000 inhabitants last year, five times higher than the national average in Argentina.
In other statements to the press, Baclini said that prosecutor Federico Rébola, in charge of the case, "is working with several hypotheses, and it is an investigation that is heading in the right direction."
"The objective of the attack was to seek public impact," said Rébola.
"There is nothing to indicate that they wanted to intimidate or demand anything from the Roccuzzo family. They used something related to Lionel Messi to ensure a wide dissemination. And with that, the message reached the whole world," added Rébola.
In the early hours of Thursday, March 2, two men on a motorcycle fired shots at a supermarket belonging to Único chain, owned by Antonela Roccuzzo's parents, Lionel Messi's wife and recent World Cup champion.
They also left a handwritten note that reads: "Messi, we are waiting for you. Javkin is a drug dealer, he won't protect you." Pablo Javkin is the mayor of Rosario, a city with one million inhabitants.
"The inclusion of the mayor is serious and generates public impact, just like the fact that it is Messi's family, which has international repercussions," said Baclini.
After the attack, the supermarket opened as usual. "We are fine. We never moved with security, we lead a normal life," said Celia Cuccittini, Messi's mother, to a Rosario journalist who published it on Twitter.
During the night, President Alberto Fernández said in an interview with C5N television channel that "organized crime has settled in Santa Fe."
"Nowhere else in Argentina does it have the dimension that it has in Rosario," he noted, questioning whether drug trafficking is involved in the attack on Messi's family supermarket.
"I don't know to what extent drug trafficking is involved and what is behind this," he said.
The president also explained that they are considering having the Army work in the poorest neighborhoods of Rosario to make it difficult for its inhabitants to be recruited as soldiers for drug trafficking. "Without weapons, under the control of the gendarmerie," he clarified.
Messi returns to his hometown of Rosario every year for the Christmas holidays and will soon return to Argentina for the friendly matches that the Albiceleste will play on March 23 and 28 in Buenos Aires and Santiago del Estero. AFP