Gangs: Fewer Questions and More Answers

El Líbero, January 21, 2023

We are located in a region that accounts for approximately 8% of the world’s population and 30% of homicides; there are no interstate conflicts, but there is a high degree of organized crime.

The gangs have taken over the agenda, all because the PDI requested a closed session with Parliament to address the issue and respond to Deputy Araya’s question about whether there were indications of Salvadoran gangs arriving in the country. 

Beyond whether there was information or not, the deputy’s question comes too late. At this point, rather than continuing to discuss whether there is evidence of new groups arriving, we should be advancing the parliamentary discussion on the package of laws against organized crime, developing a national security strategy, and improving prosecution procedures. 

The spokesperson for the Supreme Court said, “We didn’t see it coming.” But the truth is that in 2022 there was a 32% increase in homicides, a 46% increase in murders with firearms, and a 40% increase in seized weapons, in addition to a migration crisis that has been exploited by criminal groups to enter the country and an increase in gangs in prisons. So how is it possible to claim that they didn’t see it coming?!

The gangs originated in the 1980s in the United States, and after the deportation of Salvadorans living in that country, they consolidated in Central America; in Colombia, drug trafficking cartels grew, followed by Mexico, and Chile has been used for years as a transit zone for Latin American drug trafficking. We could not continue to think they would stay away!

What happened to us that we didn’t see it coming? Why didn’t we talk about this before? We are located in a region that accounts for approximately 8% of the world’s population and 30% of homicides; there are no interstate conflicts, but there is a high degree of organized crime. In such an environment, could we not see the threat? I believe we could not, perhaps we did not want to see it, even if it was evident.

Continuing to ask who arrived, continuing to talk about violence in the commission of crimes, about weapons and drugs is not enough. We know that transnational organized crime is reaching Chile and that the organization of criminal gangs is increasing, so let us discuss what we need to contain the advance of this new criminality that frightens us so much.

Let us talk about intelligence, about pursuing money, about modernizing investigative techniques, and about streamlining procedures. Only by discussing what we can do and leaving diagnoses behind will we approach solutions. 

We have professional institutions making significant efforts to contribute to the fight against crime. We need the Government to rise to that effort by promoting legislative discussion and supporting the police, while the Judiciary does its part to sanction those responsible.

We cannot continue waiting for the security table. We need concrete answers today, which must undoubtedly be reinforced with the necessary reforms aimed at medium- and long-term measures to ensure a peaceful environment.

Pilar Lizana
Researcher, AthenaLab

Source: El Líbero