Former intelligence officer explains the rise of organized crime in Chile

For decades, Chile enjoyed an enviable position in South America and seemed relatively untouched by the violence that organized crime had wreaked in many of its neighboring countries on the continent.

But with bomb threats against courts, a sharp rise in crimes such as kidnappings, and problems maintaining order in prisons, warning signs are mounting that Chile's status as one of Latin America's “safe” countries is coming to an end.

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President Gabriel Boric acknowledged the “serious problem” facing the country in a press conference and announced the construction of a new maximum security prison for people involved in organized crime, following 16 murders within 48 hours in July.

In his recent book “Un virus entre sombras”, Pablo Zeballos, an organised crime consultant and former intelligence officer of the Chilean Carabineros police, analyses how the loss of trust in the country’s institutions, the influence of transnational criminal organisations, the weaknesses of the prison system and other factors are contributing to a deterioration in security.

InSight Crime spoke with Zeballos to discuss the changes in the country’s criminal landscape.

InSight Crime (IC): The book focuses on the changes in crime in Chile. What are they and what has caused these changes?

Pablo Zeballos (PZ): I think the driving force behind these changes has been the importance of drug traffickers in prisons. Twenty or thirty years ago, they were at the bottom of the prison ladder because they were believed to corrupt the inmates.

But with the high profits from drug trafficking, these actors also gained prominence in the prison world, and this then grew beyond prison walls. As a result, the lines between thief and drug trafficker are blurring and there is a growing perception that these two crimes can complement each other.

I believe that crime in Chile is also changing. We are moving from territorial structures to functional structures. That is, it no longer matters where you come from, but rather what area you specialize in to contribute to organized crime.

IC: The book draws a link between the protests that began in 2019 in response to complaints about social inequality and the changes in crime dynamics in Chile. How do you explain this?

PZ: Even before the protests, Chile had experienced a chain of events that delegitimized institutions, including police and military institutions, especially in cases of corruption. In addition, politics as a mechanism to address social demands was also no longer functioning, as it had lost legitimacy in the eyes of the Chilean people. Then, when the protests broke out, much of the violence we saw in the streets was due to the police withdrawing from the neighborhoods. That is, the police lost prestige due to human rights violations, which led them to withdraw from the places they were supposed to protect because they were rejected by the communities.

Added to this were looting and robberies, which were more linked to criminal structures than to the population. Then came the pandemic, which pushed more state representatives off the streets, of course not only in Chile but in much of the region. This was very cleverly exploited by organized crime structures, especially the drug trafficking and other illegal markets, which occupied the spaces ceded by the state.

IC: What impact has the arrival and growth of transnational groups had in Chile?

PZ: The invasion of Chile by these groups was accompanied by a dynamic that was not usual for Chilean criminals.

For example, the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua has popularized its territorial power, but has also diversified its criminal activities through control of the territory.

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Normally, an organization in Chile controls an area to control drug trafficking. However, Tren de Aragua has shown that the organization can carry out numerous criminal activities in the same area, such as extortion, sexual exploitation or informal loans.

This has shown Chilean criminals that by dominating a territory they can build multiple interconnected illegal markets and develop local money laundering logics that are harder to detect. This has been accompanied by excessive and irrational violence that constantly challenges the presence of the state. Chilean criminals will also have to adapt to this.

IC: Regarding control within prisons, which is the responsibility of the gendarmerie, is there anything specific that the authorities should do that they have not already tried?

PZ: I think the Gendarmerie must work quickly to change its classification system to better segment criminals. We have a system based on parameters that are probably outdated in the face of new crime. Above all, because it does not take into account factors such as criminal groups coming from abroad and the dynamics of collaboration between groups with a presence in countries such as Central America or even Venezuela and Colombia.

It is necessary to better classify the criminals who enter the prison system and separate those who are linked to criminal structures from those who are not. The great challenge for Chile is to prevent prisons from becoming recruitment centers for criminals, creating a megastructure, be it Chilean or “hybrid”, that is, composed of Chileans and foreigners.

Featured image: Chilean investigative police (Policía de Investigaciones de Chile – PDI) in the middle of a security operation. Photo credit: PDI.