As we discussed before this year, we saw crime increasing in 2019-2022 but it now looks like the crime rate has reached a plateau or even gone into decline.
Here is one report
Only focused on a few specific areas however I have seen similar stories like this 4-5 times now, and in recent weeks I’ve noticed less media and social media and in person talk about rising crime.I also don’t recall as many major incidents.
I reckon the government and police actions are having some effect. Let’s hope future reports and data are able to confirm that this really is a trend and crime really has peaked or gone into decline.
I bought a newspaper at the weekend and for homicides it said 87% are by Chilean nationals, but this is down from 99% some years ago. So homicides by foreigners that have come to Chile is on the increase, but is still very much the minority according to the report.
Violent crimes are now so common that its pointless trying to keep track of them, especially as many go unreported, but this incident from last Friday night, where a mob attacked a public hospital, shows how bad things are.
“Llegaron dos personas baleadas, una con una herida grave torácica que entró a pabellón y falleció, y una segunda persona un joven que llegó con una herida en el tobillo que fue dado de alta”, detalló.
Producto del fallecimiento de esta primera persona llegaron alrededor de 50 personas al hospital con el objetivo de atacar al servicio de urgencia, produciendo además una balacera al exterior sobrepasando a los dos carabineros de punto que tiene el centro.
"Chile’s crime crisis: Pressure mounts on Boric’s government to decree a state of emergency in Santiago Three opposition mayors deliver a letter to the president to adopt the measure after a November with high homicide figures. 54% of Santiago residents agree, according to the Cadem survey."
I left Chile about half a year ago, but after 13 years there and with friends and family still living in Santiago, I keep an eye on media (and this forum from time to time). It seems to me, that I cannot open Biobio or emol without a daily report of at least one murder in RM. In weekends several.
From an outsider’s view, it certainly seems like things are deteriorating quickly, however, it also seems like it is almost all criminals killing criminals (and some times, innocent bystanders).
My doubt is therefore whether the people living in Chile and Santiago especially are noticing any chances in their daily lives?
From personal experience in a town much less violent than Santiago, I can say that:
Most shops and restaurants now close at 7:30 pm or earlier.
The streets are mostly empty after dark, with little traffic and no public transport after 9pm.
The people I do see in the streets via our cameras after dark do not inspire confidence and after 30 years of dealing with the Chilean public, I can spot trouble coming a long way off.
There are now no routine nighttime police patrols. Even in the daytime they go around in groups of 2 or more.
Its easy to dismiss this fearful situation as media-induced paranoia, as the government attempted to do until recently, but in fact its a reaction to events that have already taken place. Apart from the murders, lower-level crimes such as assaults and shoplifting have also greatly increased, as has public drunkenness and what the press genteely refers to as incivilidades, and these I have seen at first hand.
I read somewhere that the current spate of murders is a consolidation effort by gangs to establish territories, and once some sort of stability is achieved, they will tail off. After all they just want to quietly get on with selling their drugs.
I live in the RM but not in greater Santiago. As I mentioned in a previous post, a neighbor recently was a victim of a portonazo when arriving home. We have security and a security gate.
My husband works for a government agency that mostly serves people in the poorer areas of Santiago. In the past, they never had an issue with crime because they help the community. However, when they opened back up after the pandemic, they had five break-ins over the course of several months. The burglars took everything they could - computers/monitors, gas cylinders, heaters, even cleaning supplies and paper products. Their printer ended up on the roof during one attempt! They ended up shutting down the office, giving the keys to the municipality and moving people to other centers.
Finally, a few months ago, we went to a little gourmet shop in the village of Linderos, or tried to anyways. It turned out the shop had just been a victim of an armed robbery. Carabineros pulled up as we were going back to the car. The store sells a lot of high end liquor, so that is probably what they were after.
From my observations, the situation does seem to have gotten worse.
A 12-year-old boy, accompanied by a “family member” and other two women was shot dead inside a vehicle in Pudahuel. They had come to the area to buy drugs.
Some family, eh. And as mentioned earlier, bad things happen at night.
An old lady got shot and wounded in an attempt to rob her pension money…$217.000.
That’s how much a life is worth in Chile these days.
Se encontraron con dos personas adultas mayores, como nuestras mamás, vinieron a cobrar sus pensiones a las dos de la tarde. Y dos malnacidos, porque no se les puede decir de otra forma, trataron de arrebatarles 217 mil pesos”.
La otra mujer terminó con golpes, dijo el alcalde.
Nuns assaulted robbed, tied up and threatened with knives.
“La delincuencia perdió todos los códigos y los escrúpulos al atacar a estas mujeres. Urge justicia para estas religiosas, así como para todos aquellos que han sufrido a causa de la delincuencia”
One of the main responsibilities of any democratically-elected government is to maintain public order. All of Chile’s recent governments have ignored this obligation, pandering instead to spurious populist sentiment, aka buenismo.
I saw that about the nuns. Not even they are spared these days.
You used to see cases where older people are targeted leaving a bank/pension office, etc. I guess it’s assumed they are most likely to be carrying cash because maybe they don’t use online banking. But, shooting an elderly woman takes things to a new level.
This report indicates that criminals that killed the tomato farmers shot them before asking for the money.
“Los sujetos bajaron y con un arma le dispararon a los tripulantes, muriendo en el lugar el conductor y el copiloto, quedando herido el menor de 16 años. En ese momento, les solicitaron dinero, el menor de edad les tiró una mochila y ellos se dieron a la fuga”, explicó el jefe de la prefectura Cachapoal, Iván Pizarro.
It doesn’t sound like they were even given a chance to just hand over the money.
I’m so sick of certain groups and individuals trying to say this has always happened. Yes, there has always been crime, but it’s never included this level of violence.
But, hey, at least we have caletas de pescadores con perspectiva de género, you know, the important stuff.
