For 2023, Chile’s homicide rate now exceeds that of the US.
Meanwhile El Salvador, the country that once had the world’s highest murder rate peaking at 106 per 100000 in 2015, has fallen drastically to 7.6/100000 this year, and could very possibly fall below Chile’s by next year given current trends. Almost as if actually locking up murderous gangsters will reduce the murder rate in your country, although I’m sure Boric and co would shudder at the thought of depriving murderers of their “human rights”.
Thats it. Moving to the US!
Dont know any background on this but it happened in shilly. A tiktok influencer (me thinks) was killed on a street during the day by a drug related person and probably drug related (me thinks).
https://twitter.com/Video_Forensics/status/1717365521233133761
The local media covered this extensively a few days ago. The victim was a tiktok “influencer” and leader of a drug trafficking gang just out of jail. Ajuste de cuentas is the term used to describe that type of revenge murder. The link has all the info for anyone interested in that, and many other similar events.
Similarly, just a few days ago, an ex-con was shot dead right outside the prison gates in Concepción just after being released. Him, and the lady friend who had been waiting to pick him up.
These incidents are now so common that they are hardly reported any more. And I would treat that “statistic” with suspicion; the homicide rate is probably higher, as these gangs often “disappear” their victims, some of whom are undocumented, hence unidentifiable, illegals.
The current state of affairs is untenable, with no signs of improvement. The pendulum will eventually swing back the other way I guess, but not under the present system…
Worthwhile looking at the map covering the recent 47 new homicides in the RM. Not that any comuna is safe, but some have significantly higher rates.
The image is taken from a La Tercera news piece detailing the growing crime trend in this area, “the new reality” as they call it. 47 homicides in 59 days. In one of the crime sites raided by police there were bodies of victims being stored.
How very Latin American.
Effects of illegal alien “irregular” foreigners in Chile is mentioned as an element in the rising homicide rates.
Wonder why only the Western half of the RM was featured. Comunas like Peñalolén are not exactly immune from the violence.
Wondering also … but possibly no homicides in those comunas during the short period of the news note (59 days) ?
Hard on the heels of that earlier observation… 5 more homicides in less than 24 hours in RM. Might not be a record, but it looks like a trend.
That sort of thing happens often. The media shows a map of Greater Santiago and says it’s the Metropolitan Region, which is not the same. I’m guessing maybe the comunas outside the map that had homicides are the ones they’re showing - Lampa, Padre Hurtado, Melipilla and Talagante. Buin’s not shown, but I haven’t heard of any homicides here recently. There was a report of a body found in Paine soon after those bodies were found along the side of the highway in San Bernardo, but later it was reported that didn’t happen. I don’t think there were any cases there either.
Here’s a map of recent years but only until 2022.
In tabular form for just 2022, by comuna.
Important note here: these numbers can represent significant under-reporting because of the way data is interpreted. Apparently the homicide numbers are generally “dead at the scene” rather than including those who died shortly thereafter at hospitals. If the latter is included, the per-100000 rate might rise by 3 or more. For one report on the rate for Santiago Centro comuna, the number 10.4 homicides per 100000 is given but when you add those who died immediately afterward from the attempts, it comes to 13.3.
Evidently other Latam countries have similar practices for concealing high homicide rates.
There had been some denials by the usual suspects on the enormous increase in homicides in Santiago Centro in recent years. Then somebody looked at the numbers. Just another homicidal Latin American city…
The usual explanation is the effect of international/foreign bands reflecting some level of “organized crime” and typically --though not universally – associated with drug trafficking.
