The Gallegos | “In Chile, militarizing the fight against organized crime must be the last option”

Chile In recent years, it has experienced an increase in violent crimes, 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, formed in New York, or Los Pulpos, from Peru. Between 2014 and 2023, homicides increased by 60% in the country, rapes by 46%, and robberies with violence or intimidation by 11%, according to figures from the Center for Crime Studies and Analysis, dependent on the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention.

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 homicide, 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 of those involved, 34 Venezuelans and four Chileans.

Trade spoke about crime in Chile with Pia Greene researcher at the Center for Studies in Public Security and Organized Crime of the San Sebastián University.

– What is the strategy of the authorities to confront transnational crime, these gangs that arrive with new criminal modalities and commit high-impact crimes?

In Chile The criminal phenomenon has undergone a fairly important change in recent years. After the pandemic it was much more marked. Chile went from being a country of crimes against property to a nation where violent crimes against people mostly evolve.. Although property crimes are still more than 80% today, they have decreased. The typology of crime has also increased. There are crimes that we did not know about before Chile. There is a new way in which crimes occur. For example, Homicide previously occurred between people who knew each other in the private world and it was usually carried out with a knife. Today these crimes are occurring on public roads, with random unknown people, which tells you that it could be closer to a hitman or a contract murder, and they occur with firearms. So, the way in which these violent crimes are being carried out means that we are facing a phenomenon criminal much more complex, that costs more to solve and that, in addition, instills a lot of fear among people. Today we have 90% fear in the population, that means that 9 out of 10 Chileans are very scared, and that is why they have changed their daily dynamics of life, their habits.

So, things have been done to confront this phenomenon. However, they have not had enough urgency or focus to be able to address it adequately. He criminal phenomenon It has changed so quickly that authorities, society, can never keep up. Therefore, everything we learned in recent years about investigation, control, persecution or prevention today becomes obsolete in the face of this new type of crimes. There were strategies that have been good. For example, the Public Ministry installed a specialized organized crime investigation group, called ECOH, which has focused on this type to find some special characteristics and be able to investigate it in a better way, it has already had good results. The supreme supraterritorial prosecutor’s office has just been approved, which was essential because In Chile we have a prosecutor’s office for each of the 15 regions and that is very complex because research is often repeated or information is not shared.

– What is being left out that could be effective in combating 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 combated with more police coverage, butOrganized crime is fought with intelligenceand that is one of the things we are missing in Chile. Through intelligence we can understand the criminal X-ray, understand the ways in which they are operating and be able to anticipate events. Intelligence is the only way to tackle organized crime. Our intelligence agency does not have the relevance, nor the budget, nor the human resources, nor the capacity that are needed to be able to carry out this. Nor is there proper coordination between the various intelligence agencies, be it the armed forces, the police, the Ministry of the Interior, the national intelligence agency itself, the gendarmerie, etc.

Another issue, which seems more important to me, is that of prisons. In Chile we urgently require a comprehensive prison policy, where we not only have to build more prisons due to overcrowding, but we also require that prisoners be separated according to their crimes. The criminogenic contagion that exists in Chilean prisons is very powerful. So, When a person comes in for minor crimes, they have no choice but to escalate in order to defend themselves. or to be able to belong, as happened in the case of The Trinitarians in New York, who met in a prison and became a very powerful organized crime group that even reached Chile, with high firepower and very violent. We have to look for new rehabilitation and reintegration programs that are in accordance with the criminal commitment of each of the inmates. Not all crimes deserve to go to jail, there are people who can serve their sentences in freedom, with this I do not mean that people have to be out of jail, I mean that there are alternative measures and we have to use them. No real prison reform has been carried out. Today, prisons have gone from being the university of crime to the headquarters of organized crime.

Another important issue is that of frontera. By no means do I want to say that immigration has to do with crime, but nevertheless, when you have disorderly and illegal immigration due to the permeability of the border, that causes many 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 essence, 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 and that is very good news.

– In criminal matters, how is the action of the State articulated? Is the work of the police, prosecutors and judges optimal to convict those responsible for the crime?

We have a poor approach to organized crime because our internal institutions are not coordinated in the delivery of information and in the analysis, and I believe that 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 has worked in other countries to later attack it here, together with other nations. And in that sense, in the work of the police, the Prosecutor’s Office and the judges in Chile We have made progress, but there is a lack of organization within the institutions to combat organized crime and crime in general. It takes an articulation that is very difficult to achieve. The United States achieved it after the 9/11 attacks, and many other countries followed, we are just behind on this issue.

– What do you think about what is happening in Ecuador, where the military is going to 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 evaluated; However, I think it is bad to militarize crime for several reasons. First, because in Latin America we have experiences like that of Mexico, where it has not worked, and finally the military ends up entering a circle of corruption or violence that is very dangerous. So, When you militarize crime, violence escalates. In the Chilean case, the military is trained for war, and this implies having an enemy whom you have to liquidate or kill. On the other hand, law enforcement and security forces have to reduce the criminal; they are two very different perspectives. A soldier who has war weapons, who has enemy training, who has a war uniform, who has war thoughts, when acting against a criminal, will most likely do so as if he were at war, regardless of whether there are rules. of the use of force delimited. Let’s imagine a soldier controlling the identity of people and suddenly someone does not want to control their identity, or worse still, a soldier sees a crime in flagrante delicto, most likely he will act like a soldier, and in that sense it is very dangerous for the force to escalate. and that a person with weapons takes up his weapon and can cause greater violence. The second thing that also seems super relevant to me is that this has to be a measure of last option., what are you going to do after that? What if it doesn’t work for you? the circle 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, it is very likely that fear among citizens will increase. Therefore, Militarizing crime is not a good option for me., it can always be evaluated, but in specific cases such as border care. If you are going to put soldiers on the streets it has to be very well defined, know what they are going to do, how they are going to act, how they are going to be judged if they act badly, what rules for the use of force they will use, and everything. that today in Chile the preparation is not there.