All that petty corruption with fake sick days and the like is certainly a pillar of the local culture. But in the long run, the growing effects of international organized crime on Chile are increasingly evident and more significant. A recent opinion piece in Infobae (a bit wordy but oh well) gets into it.
Among the points is one very good observation: Chile’s lack of intelligence. Obviously we can take that several ways. But in the context, it discusses the absence of an effective national system for intelligence gathering to deal with the very real threats to the stability of the country.
One example, of many: Red October, 2019. How could such a massive uprising have taken place without substantial organizing? Obviously, that was not a spontaneous series of events. But the government was characteristically clueless, blindsided, and had no useful warning and thus no meaningful way to counter or deal with it.
When the FACh attempted to acquire intelligence-gathering capabilities from Israel, including the Hermes 900 ELINT/SIGINT system, the Boric government put a quick stop to it. Boric’s opposition to Israel was not the main reason. Much of the socialist bloc in Chile opposes effective intelligence gathering, even for national defense purposes. That much is understandable. To the Left, “intelligence” was synonymous with the Pinochet government’s comparatively effective means, the dreaded DINA, for rooting out supporters of the MIR, Allendista residue, and other subversive elements – whose presence and influence are still seen in the national legislature. Small wonder that this faction also seeks to keep the country blinded against the growth of organized crime in the country.
Quick translation of part of the article:
Today, Chile suffers very evident signs of the penetration of transnational organized crime in several areas. A) in everyday life and culture, daily activities related to transportation and education cannot be carried out when the streets are taken over by narco funerals, which are also broadcast on real live television channels, B) hired assassinations are now part of life in Chile, as the number of weapons and murders are in the hands of organized crime, whose effect is increased when a related crime takes place whenever kidnappings for money occur , so that a crime that was once rare has become the new normal. Finally, as a drug transit country, Chilean ports have become the preferred route for shipping Peruvian and Bolivian cocaine to Europe, bringing in synthetic drugs for regional distribution, while consumption in Chile is higher than in Colombia.
Léalo y llore.