The oasis of security and tranquility that Chile seemed to be for the rest of Latin America seems to have come to an end. The South American country is currently experiencing its worst internal crisis regarding criminal violence since the democratic era, which began after the fall of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship in 1990.
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In fact, In the last two years, insecurity has become the problem that most worries Chileans, That’s right. Among the crimes with the greatest social connotation (DMSC) that increased the most are the popularly called “door slams”, assaults on the entrances to houses or condominiums, and the “encerronas”, as they call the theft of vehicles in the middle of public roads through interceptions of armed criminals.
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Data from the Carabineros Police Operation Tactical System, Chile’s police institution, recorded an increase of 41 percent in this type of crime during the first four months of the year compared to the same period in 2021. In turn, homicide grew by above the general average, since it went from 181 to 262 cases, a variation of 45 percent.
For their part, robberies increased to more than 76,000 between January and April, that is, 45 percent more than in the first quarter of last year. The Ipsos pollster revealed that, in May, crime and violence were the issues of greatest concern among Chileans, reaching 58 percent of the total responses.
Also, Nearly 67 percent of citizens believe that Chile is on the wrong track.nine percentage points more than the reaction to the April survey.
Chile is going through the worst wave of insecurity in three decades
Statistics indicate a 70% increase in homicides in the last six years, as well as a growth in violent robberies and organized mafias. pic.twitter.com/0iIlNh3nRo
– Del Plata AM1030 (@RadioDelPlata) June 10, 2022
Despite the fact that compared to other countries in the region, such as Colombia, Brazil and Peru, in which the negative perception ranges between 75 and 90 percent, Chile appears more optimistic, the insecurity situation reached its lowest point. critical for three decades.
“We can think that Chile is a country where crime is generating greater damage than it did before. Families today perceive that they have a high risk of being victims,” Daniel Johnson, executive director of the Paz Ciudadana foundation, told AFP.
In this scenario, the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention, Eduardo Vergara, launched a phrase that raised alarm: “Chile is experiencing the worst moment in security since the return to democracy.”
The reasons for the increase in crime
The causes of this phenomenon are varied.
According to Johnson, violence increased in Chile due to the appearance of a series of “imported” crimessuch as contract killings, motorcycle assaults or migrant smuggling, carried out by gangs -not necessarily foreign- that replicated these crimes with which they have surpassed the local police and frightened the population.
In contrast, Ricardo Montero, a member of the Constituent Convention and an expert in Security Sciences, told EL TIEMPO that it is irresponsible to stigmatize migrants.
“Here there is a security phenomenon that has been accentuated over the years, but the analyzes must be multicausal and cannot be simplistic, blaming foreigners for this problem,” the constituent specified.
Gun control
There is still a high number of weapons in Chile.
Another important issue is the illegal entry of weapons. According to the General Directorate of National Mobilization (DGMN), In Chile there are more than 760,000 registered active weapons. However, based on data from the Small Arms Survey portal, specialized in weapons and armed violence, quoted by the electronic newspaper Emol, in Chile there are 2.2 million weapons in the possession of civilians, which means that, comparing the data of the Directorate, there are about 1.4 million of them that are not registered, that is, they are used in the country illegally.
In Chile, as well as in the United States, the possession of weapons is possible. Law 17,789 states that the registration of these artifacts can be carried out if the holder meets some requirements, such as being of legal age, proving that he has the knowledge of handling the weapon, in addition to being physically and mentally fit to carry it. , and not have been convicted of a crime.
The request is made before the DGMN and can be made under the argument of personal defense.
“There is a strict regulation of weapons. Only exceptionally and by legal means is their use or carrying allowed,” said Montero, who admitted, however, that “there is still a high number of weapons in Chile.”
In January, former President Sebastián Piñera promulgated a reform to Law 17,789, prohibiting the use and carrying of items such as silencers and blank weapons.
In harmony with greater control, the Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, during his first speech offered to Congress, announced that among the strategies that the Executive will take to improve the situation of insecurity in his country is the proposal to approve a new law that “allows progress towards the total prohibition of possession of weapons”.
The president, in turn, He said that they have “seen what is happening in other countries, let us not allow it to happen to us in Chile”, making a clear allusion to the crisis that the United States is going through due to the mass shootings throughout the countrya phenomenon that set off alarms around the world after the massacre in Uvalde, Texas, where 21 people died, including 19 children.
Canada, as well as Chile, also indicated that it would introduce a more restrictive rule regarding gun control.
In addition to this project, the Chilean president assured that he would reform the Carabineros body, which has been widely criticized since the massive protests of 2019 for allegedly having violated the human rights of hundreds of protesters.
The National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) registered more than 3,500 cases of violations in this framework.
The country reported that arms spending grew 23 times in just five months, the time the strike lasted, in which 193,000 tear gas cartridges were fired and 45,000 chemical grenades were launched.
However, Montero explained that in Chile “there is an intelligence deficit. A more robust system with clear civilian leadership is needed.”
How to face the crisis?
We must return to the security agenda as a public policy of the State, beyond the Governments.
Beyond the citizen’s perception of insecurity, the biggest problem that this generates is the loss of confidence in the institutions, said former prosecutor Manuel Guerra in his column for La Tercera.
For the expert, institutions only operate when there is an urgency, which means that the solutions have low effectiveness.
“We see how penalties have been raised for many crimes, particularly robberies and homicides, but despite this, the evidence shows us that these, far from lowering, are increasing,” Guerra commented in his article.
Montero agrees with Guerra’s approach, since he considered that the increase in sentences is a measure of “punitive populism”, as an inheritance from a right-wing government, which does not provide real solutions to the root of the problem.
For the expert, who worked on the creation of the new Magna Carta in Chile, which will be voted on in a plebiscite scheduled for September to decide whether or not to implement it, part of the problem lies in the current Constitution due to the lack of a norm that decrees the incidence of civil authority in defense matters.
“We must return to the security agenda as a public policy of the State, beyond the governments,” he declared.
In turn, he said that a Ministry of Public Security should be created, since in Chile this matter is controlled by the Ministry of the Interiorwhich, according to Montero, mixes security and political contingencies, which, apart from increasing the complexity of management, would not generate satisfactory results.
DIEGO STACEY SALAZAR*
INTERNATIONAL WRITING
*With information from AFP
On twitter: @diego_stacey
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