Un ejército de profesionales del delito. Prensa y asaltantes en Montevideo durante la primera mitad de la década de 1910

During the first half of the 1910s, the Montevideo press began to highlight the gradual emergence of a new criminal mode of action. These were groups of professional criminals who were characterized by their level of organization and the incorporation of modern technologies to their craft. Particularly the use of cars. During the period in question the local newspapers installed a debate that revolved around the presence of the french criminal known as the “apache”. In the present paper I propose to analyze, through the newspapers called El Siglo and La Tribuna Popular, the readings that they made about the possible appearence of gangs of robbers. The article makes it possible to verify the inflection that occurs in the press after the robbery of a local money exchange dealer on the date of June 24th 1914, event that was considered as unprecedent in the Uruguayan criminal history.