Macri to Auction Off Mafia Riches in Anti-Corruption Initiative

A new anti-corruption initiative will repurpose Argentine cartels’ illicit gains, auctioning them off and returning the profits to the public, President Mauricio Macri said Monday.

RELATED: 

20,000 Argentines Protest President Macri's Economic Policies

"We have to finish with this," he said from the Casa Rosada.

"The mafias of drug trafficking networks, organized crime and corruption took silver from the Argentines, we need it to continue fighting insecurity, to build schools, gardens, works and safer routes," said Macri.

The president told Congress that he planned to accelerate the Decree of Need and Urgency (DNU) to allow the state a faster, permanent recovery over the financial and physical damages caused by corruption, drug trafficking, cartels human trafficking.

"It is not enough to condemn those who lead these criminal gangs, you also have to attack their economic power...We talk about money, but also about houses, boats, cars, works of art,” Macri said.

"The criminals have to return every last asset they took illegitimately, in Argentina today, the one who makes them pays them,” the president said.

From his first day in office, Macri said, he has supported the fight against corruption and organized crime. Before congress, he committed to his duty to citizens who get up every day to go to work, the people who keep the country moving, so that they knows that their effort is worth it.”

Ironically, the future of public transport that carries thousands of Argentines to work every day has been a point of controversy. Last week, 20,000 protesters from political parties and social organizations banded together to demonstrate against the state’s decision to increase public transport fares by 40 percent.

Compounded with a minimum of 35 percent increase to costs of electricity around the country and US$57 billion International Monetary Fund bailout package, the president’s recent policies have sunk his popularity ratings to a new low.

It’s uncertain whether this new initiative will reinstill the country’s confidence with the state leader.