It is the first time that this type of measure has been adopted in the face of the growing number of threats against prosecutors, judges and politicians. In the spotlight is Mexican, Venezuelan and Brazilian organized crime, groups that have established themselves throughout the territory and are related to drug trafficking and human trafficking.
“Con he start of the confrontation with he world of the narco, months ago, with he first shooting that was, they started to appear posters, pamphlets, a bun with me hanged… AND have continued the threats. The last time, when he Wednesday we did the last demolition, the soldiers of the drug traffickers they shouted ‘we know where you live, we know who are your children, come on to kill to you mom’…”, account Rodolfo Carter, mayor of La Florida, a municipality in eastern Santiago, the fifth largest in the country.
Since February, Carter has promoted the demolition of houses allegedly related to drug trafficking, and he has been receiving threats for months. He is not the only one: at least three other mayors and two deputies have received death threats. A phenomenon that has deepened in the last year.
“It has caught us off guard”
“The situation in La Araucanía is not new. The violence began in 1997 with the first attack on trucks belonging to a forestry company, carried out by the Arauco Malleco Coordinator in December, but from then until today it has deepened, and especially now that we are confronting organized crime, it has progressed very, very quickly in the last year.” explains to RFI Pilar Lizana, an organized crime researcher at the AthenaLab analysis center.
“It has caught us off guard in certain ways. The authorities have reported the presence of Mexican cartels such as the Jalisco Cartel, Nueva Generación and the Sinaloa Cartel. The different media outlets in the country reported a lot on the actions of the Tren de Aragua, these Venezuelans who are born in the Venezuelan penitentiary system and operate quite extensively in the territory”, continues Lizana.
drug export
Chile has become an important place for the activities of these groups, especially along its coast, the researcher analyzes: “Swe hear neighbors of the second and he third producer of Coke world, Peru and Bolivia. AND our border with bolivian is quite used for get into this drug to the country and after this guy of groups transnational are treating of take him out advantage to our infrastructure port for can export it by there. He report of nations United, that HE public does nails weeks back about the production of Coke, already located to one of our ports inside of the routes of distribution”.
The Prosecutor’s Office unit that will investigate the threats is led by Héctor Barrios, an organized crime specialist who will lead a group of 13 prosecutors.
