Chile to build maximum security prison to combat advance of organized crime

Chile will build “with a sense of urgency” a new maximum security prison in the capital Santiago to help combat organized crimePresident Gabriel Boric announced on Thursday.

The new facility will cost an estimated $95.4 million and will be able to house about 500 inmates as part of a plan to double the current 600 maximum-security places. Another 200 places will be added to existing prisons in northern Chile, an area that has seen higher levels of organized crime in recent years.

“In Chile we will not allow what has happened in other countries, where organized crime has taken over prisons without state control,” Boric said after a meeting on security with members of his cabinet.

Boric said he would send a bill to Congress to speed up the permitting process and construction of the facility, which will be focused on arresting criminal gang leaders.

“I hope to have the cooperation and sense of urgency of Congress in this matter,” he said.

The announcement came after two mass shootings in Santiago left a dozen people dead, including four teenagers, in recent days. Boric announced that suspects had been arrested in both cases.

Rising crime has been a major issue for the leftist president since he took office in 2022 and has dominated much of his agenda.

Last year, the president announced a $1.5 billion spending increase to combat crime following a spate of police killings, while private spending on security has also increased as safety tops voters’ concerns.

Chile’s Interior Minister Carolina Tohá said the country does not plan to follow the “mega-prison” strategy of El Salvador, which opened a prison for 40,000 people last year, but rather to reach European prison standards.

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