INTERVIEW | Pilar Lizana on Emol Social Facts about the rise of kidnappings in Chile

These crimes are committed for extortion purposes, a common practice in international criminal networks.

On Monday, a father reported to the authorities the kidnapping of his 16-year-old son in the commune of Illapel, located in the Coquimbo Region. At approximately 9:20 PM, the man received a video call from his son accompanied by a masked individual, who demanded $150 million as ransom for the release of the minor. Ultimately, the minor was rescued thanks to the intervention of the PDI.

“Terrible, I wouldn’t wish it on anyone, it’s brutal. If it weren’t for the PDI, I would probably not have my son. My son was returned to me beaten, tortured, alive, but tortured. I want them to pay. This cannot happen in Chile, especially in such a small town as Illapel,”said the father of the minor, Juan Salvador Dabed, on the morning show Buenos Días a Todos on TVN.

According to information from Carabineros for January of this year, in 2022 there were 508 kidnappings, representing a 79% increase compared to 2021, nationwide. Records from the institution indicate that from 2017 to 2022, there were 1,925 kidnappings throughout the country, half of which occurred in the Metropolitan Region.

According to the System for Supporting Prosecutors (SAF) – a database of the Public Ministry – between January and October 18, 2023, 685 cases of kidnapping crimes have been reported, while the total for 2022 was 850. The previous statistics include kidnapping crimes, kidnapping with rape, kidnapping with homicide, kidnapping with injuries, kidnapping where ransom is demanded or that lasts more than 24 hours, and kidnapping for more than 15 days or causing serious harm to the person.

Article 141 of the Penal Code states: “Whoever unlawfully confines or detains another, depriving them of their liberty, commits the crime of kidnapping and shall be punished with imprisonment or lesser confinement in its maximum degree. (…) The same penalty shall apply to anyone who provides a location for the execution of the crime”.This means a sentence of three years and one day to five years.

The penalties increase depending on whether the crime is committed to obtain ransom, if the confinement or detention lasts more than 24 hours, more than fifteen days, or if it results in serious harm to the person or interests of the kidnapped individual. If homicide, rape, or any of the injuries covered in Articles 395, 396, and 397 No. 1 occur as a result of the kidnapping, the punishment is life imprisonment or qualified life imprisonment.

Juan Carlos Manríquez, a lawyer and professor of Criminal Law and Strategic Litigation at UC, and president of the Legal Committee of the International Criminal Court, explains, in general terms, that this crime consists of detaining a person, affecting their freedom of movement, their ambulation freedom, sometimes their freedom of decision, and jointly their freedom of decision in the realm of sexual intimacy or others.

The specialist details that kidnapping manifests in two essential modalities: confining a person where they do not want to be, or preventing them from leaving where they do not want to be or stopping them from reaching where they want to be.

Manríquez emphasizes that kidnapping must be distinguished from mere illegal retention or detention, which is essentially temporary. He clarifies that kidnapping is a crime of permanent consummation that can extend over time.

“In current modalities, one of the most difficult to delineate is the so-called extortion kidnappings or ‘million-dollar rides’, where a person is held for less than 15 days, forced to go where they do not want to go, or prevented from leaving where they do not want to be in exchange for pressuring them to provide their passwords or cards to obtain money or call third parties for their rescue. In those cases, we are evidently facing modern modalities of organized crime,” he asserts.

The lawyer details that this modality is linked to modern organized crime, through which gangs locate individuals in public spaces or outside banks or other places to obtain quick financing. According to the specialist, it is a modality that has spread and sometimes varies in its different “criminal turns”, potentially transitioning from a “motochorro” or a carjacking to becoming an extortion kidnapping or a “million-dollar ride.”

The role of organized crime and the protocols to reverse this situation

AthenaLab researcher Pilar Lizana refers to the increase in contract killings during the past year, highlighting that this fact solidified territorial disputes and the criminal power that organized networks began to develop in Chile during 2022.

In this regard, the expert points out that current kidnapping crimes go hand in hand with the actions of international gangs, which have adopted a character similar to that observed in countries like Brazil, Colombia, and Mexico, where criminal organizations have corrupted institutions and forced individuals to opt for protection alternatives, such as private security, armored vehicles, escorts, among others.

In the case of Chile, she comments that these new modalities began to develop in the northern regions, where organized crime entered and started to penetrate the country. However, the researcher asserts that this does not mean that extortion kidnappings or those related to such gangs will remain confined to those areas, but rather that they will begin to spread throughout the territory.

Lizana argues that it is ineffective to develop laws that impose new penalties for this crime without first implementing a prison policy that aligns with the national context. Therefore, she states that various protocols must be adopted that go beyond how to pursue and apprehend those who commit this type of crime, including the treatment of the penal population when the country is faced with this type of prisoners linked to criminal organizations.

“We first need the political will to decide that organized crime cannot continue to advance in the country. (…) It is very important to keep in mind that the costs of combating organized crime are quite high, because organized crime groups will always respond very violently, using firearms, lethal weapons, and there will be casualties on both sides,and that cost must be very much in mind for those making decisions,” she expresses.

Additionally, the AthenaLab researcher adds that, to control this situation and prevent it from advancing, real intersectoral work is needed, where there is coordination of national security with various agencies, along with the development of intelligence that allows for addressing the new criminal landscape.

By Marco Zecchetto Rocco
October 19, 2023

Source: Emol