A security architecture against crime

El Líbero, May 28, 2022

It is time to employ intelligence, understand the environment, identify strengths and weaknesses, and integrate all institutions into the process.

Organized crime. A concept that is being used more frequently in Chile. Drug trafficking, human trafficking, smuggling, illegal economies of copper and timber, etc. However, the arrival of this phenomenon is not what should be concerning. Given our openness and integration into the globalization process, we were bound to face it sooner or later. What is truly concerning is the State’s preparedness to confront this threat. 

What we do is what everyone is asking. We should start by clearly distinguishing the organized crime from the criminal organizations that may operate in Chile. Both exist, but not everything is organized crime. It is characterized by very complex structures that go beyond the individuals involved. Therefore, capturing one of the leaders of international drug trafficking does not mean that the cartel will disappear. It continues to operate. Criminal organizations also have more or less complex structures, but they are built for a particular business and do not transcend the individuals. The problem, in both cases, is a weak or absent State. 

Where there is a need, a business is created, but mere need is not enough for crime to develop. Hence the importance of a strong and present State, capable of providing security, development, and well-being, where the response goes far beyond the police realm. Institutions as a whole must reach every corner of the country to avoid leaving gaps. 

The time has come to move from dialogue to action and to stop being satisfied with having indicators that are much higher than those of many Latin American countries. It is true that our indices of institutional quality, democracy, and perception of corruption are better than many others in the region. But it is also true that these have shown setbacks compared to ten years ago, which should raise alarms. In terms of corruption, we are not better off than a decade ago, and our democratic category has been downgraded to defective. We cannot be satisfied with being better than others.

In the north, for example, the Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan organization dedicated to kidnapping and extortion, is already operating; homicides in Arica are on the rise, drug trafficking is not stopping… The outlook is not good, but we should not think we are at the same level as Mexico. The focus should be on the response to these problems. One that goes beyond dialogue tables and meetings with mayors of municipalities with high rates of violence and drug trafficking. We must move to action.

It is time to employ intelligence, understand the environment, identify strengths and weaknesses, and integrate all institutions into the process. The key: to gather a cross-cutting political will capable of agreeing on three pillars, or however many are necessary, to build a national strategy against crime that operates as the framework structure from which specific plans for each crime derive. But a real will, that goes beyond a national agreement for peace, that brings the State to those places it does not reach and fills the gaps that create the context for the development of crime. We should not be satisfied with being better than others; we must take action to avoid becoming like them.  

Pilar Lizana
Researcher at AthenaLab

Source: El Líbero