Chile - July 2024

President Gabriel Boric has announced new measures to address insecurity, following a surge in violent crime, including a rise in firearm-related homicides, and an increase in organized crime activity. Only in July, 16 homicides were reported, adding to recent crime waves. The government’s  measures include pushing for an immediate congressional debate on two legislative projects that have been stalled in Congress for some years and seek to combat organized crime: one on economic intelligence that aims to improve the traceability of illicit money and another to strengthen and modernize the state’s intelligence system. Other measures include the construction of a high-security prison, the increase in the capacity of the country’s current maximum-security prison and the creation of a special task force on security in Santiago. However, these steps have been criticized as insufficient and long overdue by members of the opposition and by some members of the ruling coalition.

Sources: Bio Bio Chile, El Pais, La Tercera (1), La Tercera (2), Gobierno de Chile