A grocery store within the Argentine metropolis of Rosario, owned by Lionel Messi’s spouse, Antonella Roccuzo’s household, was attacked within the early hours of Friday by two gunmen on a motorbike.
The attackers left a word on cardboard following the open hearth that threatened the Argentine icon. It is reported that the dissidents shot a minimum of a dozen rounds of ammunition.
The metropolis’s mayor, Pablo Javkin, went to the grocery store and lashed out at federal authorities over what he referred to as their failure to curb a surge in drug-related violence in Rosario, positioned about 190 miles (300 kilometers) northwest of the capital of Buenos Aires.
The message learn “Messi, we’re waiting for you. Javkin is also a drug trafficker, so he won’t take care of you.”
Nobody was injured within the early morning assault, and it was unclear why assailants would goal Messi or the Unico grocery store within the nation’s third-largest metropolis of Rosario, owned by the household of his spouse.
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Messi has not commented. Considered by many to be the best soccer participant of all time, Messi is revered in Argentina, particularly since he led the nationwide staff to the nation’s first World Cup victory in 36 years in Qatar in December.
Messi presently performs for Paris Saint-Germain and spends a lot of his time abroad, although he typically visits Rosario the place he has a house within the suburb of Funes. The French staff posted a photograph on social media of Messi coaching on Thursday morning.
In Rosario, prosecutor Federico Rébola stated authorities had been reviewing safety digital camera footage and that the investigation was “preliminary.” It was the primary time Messi’s in-laws had acquired this sort of menace, he added.
Celia Arena, justice minister for Santa Fe province, the place Rosario is positioned, stated the assault amounted to “terrorism” by a “mafia” group meant to intimidate the broader population.
“The aim is to deliberately cause terror in the population and discourage those of us who are fighting against criminal violence, knowing that it will be an event of global significance,” Arena wrote in a social media put up.
Javkin, a center-left politician in opposition to the ruling Peronist coalition, appeared to throw suspicion of complicity for the attack on both criminal gangs and federal security officials.
“I doubt everyone, even those who are supposed to protect us,” Javkin said in an interview with a local radio station.
He said that he had recently had “very strong discussions” with members of the federal security forces over the past couple of weeks demanding that they crack down on the city’s crime.
“Where are the ones who need to take care of us?” Javkin said. “It’s clear that those who have the weapons and have the possibility of investigating the criminals aren’t doing it, and it’s very easy for any gang to carry out something like this.”
The federal government’s Security Minister Aníbal Fernández said drug-related violence was not a recent phenomenon in the city, and that Thursday’s attack was typical of what has happened there “for the last 20 years.”
He stated the incident was an instance of how drug traffickers “have won” in Rosario, however now “we have to reverse that.”
Opposition politicians blamed President Alberto Fernández’s administration for the continuing violence in Rosario. His predecessor, Mauricio Macri, characterized the events as a warning that the country cannot “co-exist” with drug traffickers.
Messi, 35, is presently renegotiating a contract with Paris Saint-Germain that ends this 12 months amid hypothesis that the soccer famous person might determine to finish his profession enjoying for one of many native Rosario golf equipment, Newell’s.
Messi, who this week received FIFA’s finest males’s participant award, might journey to Argentina later this month to affix the nationwide squad in enjoying two pleasant matches. One takes place March 23 in opposition to Panama in Buenos Aires, whereas the opposite one will probably be 5 days later in opposition to Curacao within the northern metropolis of Santiago del Estero.
With Inputs From AP
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