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InSight Crime's 2021 Homicide Round-Up

InSight Crime

1 February 2022

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Chile: 3.6 per 100,000
Homicides dropped by nearly 25 percent in Chile when compared to 2020, one of the country's deadliest years.

Chile recorded 698 homicides in 2021, a drop from 918 in 2020, according to police statistics. While the country's homicide rate of 3.6 per 100,000 was the lowest in Latin America, the country has experienced escalating violence in recent years amid gang and drug trafficking activity.

There was disagreement, however, about the country's homicide rate. In early January, Attorney General Jorge Abott claimed the homicide rate had increased to about 5 percent while Interior Ministry maintained it was closer to 3.5 percent.

(…) While Chile long avoided the type of criminal activity and gangs that plagued other countries, that no longer appears to be the case. Last year, waves of migrants were smuggled into the country, with many Haitians and Venezuelans journeying across the country's remote border from Bolivia, sometimes with fatal consequences. Profits from smuggling their countrymen even drew one of Latin America's most dangerous gangs, Venezuela's Tren de Aragua, to Chilean soil.

Drug hauls were also up, with almost 30 tons of marijuana and cocaine seized last year, more than double the previous year's tally. And weapons traffickers also set their sights on Chile as a gateway into Latin America (…)

ID: N885

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