The Rise of Transnational Crime in Chile: Strategies and Challenges in Combating Organized Crime

2024-04-26 22:33:04

Chile In recent years, the number of violent crimes has increased, hand in hand with the arrival in the country of international organized crime gangs, such as the Tren de Aragua, of Venezuelan origin; Los Trinitarios, founded in New York, or Los Pulpos, from Peru. Between 2014 and 2023, homicides increased 60% in the country, rape 46%, and robberies with violence or intimidation 11%, according to figures from the Center for the Study and Analysis of Crime, relying on the Undersecretariat for the Prevention of Crime.

At the judicial level, the country is awaiting the start of the mega-trial against 38 members of the criminal gang Galiciansubsidiary of Train from Aragua, for a series of crimes that include murder, kidnapping, human trafficking, sexual exploitation, extortion, arms and drug trafficking, among others. This is the most complex criminal process in recent years in the country, due to the high level of danger for those involved, 34 Venezuelans and four Chileans.

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Trade talk about crime in Chile with Pia Greeneresearcher at the Center for the Study of Public Security and Organized Crime at the University of San Sebastián.

– What is the strategy of the authorities to combat transnational crime, those gangs that come in with new detailed criminal rules and commit high-impact crimes?

I Chile The criminal phenomenon has undergone a fairly important change in recent years. After the pandemic it was much more significant. Chile has gone from being a country of crimes against property to a nation where violent crimes against people mostly occur.. Although property crimes are still more than 80% today, they have decreased. The typology of crime has also increased. There are crimes that we didn’t know about before Chile. There is a new way in which crimes are committed. For example, There have been previous homicides between people who knew each other in the private world and it was usually with a knife. Today these crimes are happening on public roads, with random unknown people, who tell you it could be closer to a hitman or contract murder, and they happen with firearms. So, the way these violent crimes are being committed means that we are facing a phenomenon criminal much more complicated, which costs more to solve and, in addition, causes a lot of fear among people. Today we have 90% fear in the population, which means that 9 out of 10 Chileans are very afraid, and that is why they have changed their daily dynamics of life, their habits.

Pía Greene, researcher at the Center for the Study of Public Security and Organized Crime at the University of San Sebastián.

Therefore, things have been done to address this phenomenon. However, they did not have enough urgency or focus to be able to address it properly. he criminal phenomenon It has changed so fast that authorities, with society, can never keep up. Therefore, everything we have learned in recent years about investigating, controlling, prosecuting or preventing today has become obsolete in the face of this new type of crime. There were strategies that were good. For example, the Public Ministry installed a specialized group for the investigation of organized crime, called ECOH, which focused on this type to find some special characteristics and be able to investigate it in a better way, it already had good results . The office of the supreme supreme prosecutor has just been approved, which was necessary because of In Chile we have a prosecutor’s office for each of the 15 regionsand that is very complicated because research is repeated or information is not shared.

– What is being left out that could be effective in fighting crime?

For example, the street plan without violence has been implemented, with more police on the streets, but what happens with that? Common crime is fought with more police coverage, butOrganized crime is fought with intelligenceand that’s one of the things we’re missing Chile. Through intelligence we can understand the criminal X-ray, understand the ways in which they operate and be able to anticipate events. Information is the only way to fight organized crime. Our intelligence agency doesn’t have the relevance, or the budget, or the human resources, or the ability to do that. There is no proper coordination between the various intelligence agencies either, be it the armed forces, the police, the Ministry of the Interior, the national intelligence agency itself, the gendarmerie, etc.

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Another issue, which seems more important to me, is prisons. In Chile we urgently need a comprehensive prison policy, not only do we need to build more prisons because of overcrowding, but we also demand that prisoners be segregated according to their crimes. The criminal infection that exists in Chilean prisons is very powerful. So, When someone comes in for petty crimes, they have no choice but to step up to defend themselves. or to be able to belong, as happened in the case The Trinity in New York, who met in prison and became a very powerful organized crime group that even reached Chile, with high firepower and very violent. We must look for new programs of rehabilitation and reintegration that are in accordance with the criminal commitment of each of the prisoners. Not every crime deserves to go to prison, there are people who can serve their sentence in freedom, by this I don’t mean people have to be out of prison, I mean there are other measures and we will use them to use. No real prison reform has been done. Today, prisons have gone from being the university of crime to the headquarters of organized crime.

Another important question is front. I don’t want to say that immigration is related to crime, but nevertheless, when you have disorderly and illegal immigration because of the permeability of the border, it causes a lot of people to enter illegally. Although 99% of people may be good, they come in search of new opportunities, people also come in who do not come with good intentions. AND Organized crime, which is transnational in nature, enters the country with new crimes. Recently this has been controlled by allowing the military to help at the border, and that has reduced illegal immigration which is good news.

The Chilean Investigative Police (PDI) patrols around Cerro Chuño, on the outskirts of Arica, on June 16, 2022, where the Los Gallegos criminal group is based. (AFP).

– In criminal matters, how is the action of the State communicated? Is the work of the police, prosecutors and judges better in convicting those responsible for the crime?

We have a weak approach to organized crime because our internal institutions are not coordinated in information delivery and analysis, and I believe this also happens in the rest of the Latin American countries. There is a lack of operational coordination, a lack of coordination between the Prosecutor’s Office, a lack of being able to look at the phenomenon in a global way, because organized crime crosses borders and for that we must be attentive to how it worked. other countries are later attacked here, along with other nations. And in that sense, in the work of the police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the judges i Chile We have made progress, but there is a lack of organization within the institutions to fight organized crime and crime in general. It takes articulation that is very difficult to achieve. The United States managed to achieve it after the attacks of 9/11, and many other countries after it, we are only behind this issue.

– What do you think about what is happening in Ecuador, where the army will have police functions in the fight against crime, could this happen in Chile at some point?

Los military On the street it is a measure that can always be considered; However, I think the militarization of crime is bad for several reasons. First of all, because in Latin America there is an experience like that Mexico, where it did not work, and finally the military ends up entering a very dangerous circle of corruption or violence. So, When you militarize crime, violence increases. In the case of Chile, the military is trained for war, and this implies that you have an enemy that you must liquidate or kill. On the other hand, law enforcement and security forces must reduce the criminal; A soldier who has weapons of war, who has enemy training, who has a uniform of war, who has thoughts of war, when he acts against a criminal, he is more likely to do so as if he were at war, regardless of the there are rules for limited use of force. Let’s imagine a soldier controlling the identity of people and suddenly someone does not want to control his identity, or even worse, a soldier sees a crime in flagrante delicto, he is more likely to act as a soldier, and in that sense it is very dangerous. that the force escalates and someone who has a weapon takes his weapon and may do more violence. The second thing that is also very relevant to me is that this must be a measure of last resort., what are you going to do next? What if it doesn’t work for you? The cycle of violence continues. The last thing, which is also very important in this issue, is what will happen to fear, if you remove the military, fear will probably increase among the citizens. Therefore, Committing a military crime is not a good choice for me., it can always be considered, but in specific cases like border care. If you are going to put soldiers on the streets it needs to be very well defined, know what they will do, how they will act, how they will be judged if they act badly, what the rules are with the use of force they will use, and everything to this day Chile the preparation is not there.