Example to Avoid

El Líbero, Saturday, April 16, 2022

While we were all discussing the elimination of the Senate, very few commented on what happened at an urban music concert in Coronel. The national artist Pailita had to stop the concert to ask the audience to “put away their guns.” Days later, in a radio interview, he acknowledged that he often felt fear at his events due to gunfire and weapons. Now, if we add to this that the urban singer Vichito, the incorrigible, was arrested in a massive drug seizure, drugs, it becomes clear that the criminal underworld is creating a culture in Chile that challenges the State day by day.

The organized crime that comes hand in hand with drug trafficking was bound to replicate the styles characteristic of Mexican cartels sooner or later. If in the North American country the cultural trend is marked by the narcocorrido, in Chile it is marked by trap music. Weapons and luxury cars are showcased in music videos and concerts, while young people see these urban idols as role models. It is concerning that criminal culture has arrived in Chile so quickly, having already established itself in other parts of the continent. 

In vulnerable communities, minors are exposed to situations that are complex and unacceptable for anyone, but for them, they are part of everyday life. Fireworks, stray bullets and narco-funerals that can last a week are situations that have been occurring for some time, and now they have been joined by murders and bodies shot in broad daylight. 

The security problem in Chile has changed, and it did not take a long time; everything happened quite rapidly starting in the second decade of this century. For a long time, the ocean, the mountains, and the desert protected us from the arrival of these threats, but globalization, with its technological advances, shortened distances, lowered the heights of the Andes, and inserted Chile into a new world where challenges are multiple and have infinite dimensions. 

No one said it would be easy. Now more than ever, the government is being tested day by day. The violence in the south, uncontrolled migration, and murders in urban areas constitute a scenario that requires firm and cross-cutting responses. However, they cannot forget the multidimensionality of the challenge. Organized crime is the continuation of business by other means, and for this, they will use all available tools. The lack of opportunities can be a very powerful factor.

In a context where our youth have grown up with the immediacy of social media and online shopping, the frustration of not achieving goals quickly can be high, and in the face of the option to obtain easy wealth, they become instruments for crime. The time has come to put political differences aside. Current and past State leaders must work together so that, alongside security responses, they create opportunities for new generations, where education is the cornerstone that allows them to progress and distance themselves from temptations. Only then will new leadership emerge, and a better and safer Chile will be built. 

Pilar Lizana
Researcher at AthenaLab

Source: El Líbero