COLUMN | The Security Challenges of 2025

It is not that the Carabineros do not want to do their job, but they lack the personnel and resources required. The budget allocated by the government is incomprehensible, especially when they claim it is a priority, yet it amounts to nothing more than a slogan without substance.

I am fortunate that this weekly column falls on Wednesday, January 1, making me one of the first to inaugurate 2025.

Unfortunately, the most recent surveys confirm that the issue of crime and complex criminal phenomena are the main concerns of Chileans, but even more worrying is that this occurs in a highly conflictive political environment, which will be further exacerbated by the electoral processes we face in 2025, making their resolution more difficult than in less tense scenarios.

The solution also appears complex because the government is not achieving results, whether due to its incapacity, a reluctance to accept help from experts, and also, it must be said, because the right does not necessarily assist in the search for solutions, turning it into an electoral political issue.

I have indicated before that it is in the right’s interest to find a more resolved security scenario by March 2026. I assume they will be in government by March of that year, and I hope they will also have a parliamentary majority. It is beneficial for them because when they are in government, recent history indicates that the left takes to the streets, leading to public order problems that add to the existing security issues.

Boric has not faced street protests or disturbances that distract the Carabineros, who, if required to do so, would not be able to address the issues of crime or complex criminality that plague most of Chile.

The Carabineros, as a confirmed fact, are not covering a significant part of the Metropolitan Region, relying on municipal security departments, which act as if they were police, but without the powers, training, and equipment that such roles require.

It is not that the Carabineros do not want to do their job, but they lack the personnel and resources required. The budget allocated by the government is incomprehensible, especially when they claim it is a priority, yet it amounts to nothing more than a slogan without substance. It is concerning that the Carabineros are not fulfilling their constitutional role of ensuring and guaranteeing order and security in the national territory, and that no one seems to notice or that no parliamentary authority holds the government accountable for this constitutional failure.

Of course, there have been good advances such as the Nain Retamal Law, or the anti-occupation, or the anti-terrorism, but there are other areas such as intelligence where there have been no advancements, which may be the most necessary and immediate to resolve. The Ministry of Public Security, if ready and operational by 2025, will not produce results and will do even less if the problems and inconsistencies with which it was established are not corrected, which are significant in themselves, but mainly because the human resources and organizations assigned are the same as currently exist, and if improvements are not made to make them more effective and efficient, or if more personnel and financial resources are not allocated, we will see results equal to or worse than those we currently observe.

I have grown tired of saying in every medium and forum available that without a public security strategy, things will not change, and that leaving it as one of the tasks for the future Ministry of Security does not understand that the problem is now, and cannot be resolved with an initiative like “Streets Without Violence.”

Evidently, we also have problems at the borders, in prisons, in tracking illicit money, and with the Mapuche terrorist insurgent movements operating in the Southern Macrozone, which distract resources from combating crime and criminal organizations. Clearly, both are associated and related, and therefore it is crucial to have a strategy that addresses the whole, and not simply lists of actions that are all important, but that are not necessarily resolved if they are not understood and addressed as parts of a whole, something that only a public security strategy for Chile can achieve.

In conclusion, it is time to understand that without a strategy, we will not achieve results, nor will we achieve them if we do not allocate a larger portion of the budget to combat crime and delinquency, if we do not have more Carabineros, PDI, and prosecutors. This must be understood by both the government and the right. More of the same will not produce results.