Chile will increase police force in the north to face the migration crisis

The Government of Chile announced that it will increase the police force in the north of the country to face the migratory crisis that has been going on for a year on the border and the increase in crime reported by neighbors and local authorities.

The Minister of the Interior, Rodrigo Delgadosaid that this same Tuesday, a hundred agents from the Carabineros police force and the Investigative Police (PDI) will arrive in the northern city of Iquique, who will remain in the area until March 11, the day on which the new government of the leftist Gabriel Boric.

Delgado also indicated that it will be carried out “an immediate intervention plan in those neighborhoods with the highest crime rate” with the objective of “give greater security to the neighbors”.

The prosecutor of Tarapacathe region to which Iquique belongs, Raul Arancibiaassured last week that homicides increased by 183% in one year and that criminal gangs have emerged “extremely violent”, with methods and crimes that had not been seen before in northern Chile.

“We empathize and know that people cannot wait much longer”, added the minister, who traveled to Iquique on Tuesday after hundreds of people marched against the massive arrival of migrants on Sunday.

Iquiquethe first large city encountered by migrants arriving in Chile through irregular steps on the northern border with Bolivia, also experienced a strike on Monday, with truckers blocking roads and small businesses closing down.

Likewise, the local airport was forced to suspend its operations due to the truck blockade in demand for greater border control.

Support “non-existent” from Bolivia

Neither the pandemic nor the social crisis that lasted for more than a year in 2019 have discouraged the desire to migrate to Chile, one of the most attractive countries in Latin America due to its political and economic stability.

After a boom in irregular entries in February last year, the crisis worsened in October, with hundreds of foreigners, mainly Venezuelans, occupying public spaces in squares and avenues.

“We would like to have much clearer support from the Bolivian authorities, which is practically non-existent”, lamented Delgado.

The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) warned last December that nearly 500 Venezuelan refugees and migrants, including children, cross daily through irregular border crossings between Bolivia and Chile and arrive in the country “after several days without eating, with dehydration. , hypothermia and altitude sickness.

So far this year, at least two people have died trying to cross the border and some 23 since the massive flow began in February 2021.

In Chile there are 1.4 million migrants, which is equivalent to more than 7% of the population, and Venezuelans are the most numerous, followed by Peruvians, Haitians and Colombians.