Located just three hours from the border with Bolivia, the Chilean city of Iquique woke up this Saturday blocked again by dozens of truckers who, together with a good part of the residentsblame the increase in insecurity and violence on the hundreds of irregular migrants who come down from the altiplano every day.
As of early Saturday, the remains of the fire barricades and barriers erected by truckers on Friday were still visible.hours after the spread of a new act of violence attributed to three people, two of them foreignerswho remain detained.
According to the first report from the Carabineros body, a 22-year-old driver would have died when he fell at a level crossing after getting out of his truck and arguing with the three suspects, who allegedly stoned his vehicle.
The news led hundreds of colleagues to cut off access to the city of Iquique, and the routes that extend both to the border with Boliviawhere today hundreds of migrants could be seen descending on foot due to lack of vehicles, and to the city of Antofagasta, located 400 kilometers away and where xenophobic sentiment also spreads.
According to data from the Tarapacá Prosecutor’s Office, homicides have experienced an increase of 183% in the area in recent monthscoinciding with the massive arrival of migrants after the outgoing president, Sebastián Piñera, declared that Chile was a safe country.
A statement that the opposition called irresponsible and that according to local and international analysts would be the origin of the current migration and security crisis, which threatens to become the first major obstacle for his successor, President-elect Gabriel Boric, three weeks of his investiture.
supply shortages
The mobilizations, which began two weeks agohave begun to impact the local economy, with shortages in the supply of some products, such as gasolineand with dozens of people trapped, unable to leave the city by road or by air, enveloped in dense black smoke from burning tires.
“We are not against immigration. We have always lived with Peruvians and Bolivians, but we had never seen this before. We are against crime and we want to live in peace”the leader of the taxi drivers’ union, Joaquín Besares, explained to Efe today, with blackened hands after moving the tires that cut off access and exit to the city.
“The Piñera government is the biggest circus we have ever had. We request a state of emergency now to control the situation”added Besares in front of a kilometric line of vehicles stranded on the highway without being able to enter Iquique.
The state of exception is a Chilean constitutional tool where, by presidential initiative in the first instance, military forces assume control of roads and patrol in a certain area.
“Carabineros cannot cope. Here we have contract killers, kidnappings, shootings. We don’t want one of our children to be killed. Iquique is disgusting” told Efe, for her part, the Alto Hospicio neighborhood leader, Paula Scarafi, one of the promoters of the mobilization that until now has an indefinite character.
Police inaction
Despite the fact that the transporters blocked all the entrances to the city with barricades and trucks, in a coordinated action that was replicated throughout the north of the country, Efe confirmed that Carabineros -militarized police- It did not dissuade those responsible for reestablishing traffic, because they did not have the Executive order, according to what the uniformed officers present told this agency off the microphone.
Since February of last yearor, Chile is experiencing an unprecedented irregular migration crisis on its northern border, particularly in the town of Colchane, on the border with Boliviaa town of just over 1,300 inhabitants located in the Andean highlands, at more than 3,600 meters above sea level.
The harshness of its climate, with a scorching sun during the day and temperatures that drop below zero degrees at night, has caused the death of dozens of migrants who have ventured to reach Chile in recent months.
Today, and as Efe was able to verify on its route to Colchane, decenes had decided to continue their journey on foot despite the blockade and the situation in Iquique, where insecurity and xenophobia have triggered tension. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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