National Prosecutor Valencia: "Chile is not Brazil, Colombia or Mexico" on organised crime
National Prosecutor Ángel Valencia ruled out that Chile has insecurity levels comparable to other countries in the region and warned of the Tren de Aragua's infiltration into banking.
Valencia: Chile has not generated transnational criminal organisations like the Jalisco Cartel or the Clan del Golfo
National Prosecutor Ángel Valencia stated that Chile faces organised crime, but clarified that the country has not reached the insecurity levels of other Latin American nations. "We are still very far from matching its activity. Sometimes we think this is like Mexico, sometimes we think this is like Colombia or Brazil, and I say right now that this is neither Brazil, nor Colombia, nor Mexico," he said in an interview with T13 AM, according to reporting by t13.cl.
Valencia backed his position with a concrete argument: to date, Chile has not given rise to any transnational criminal organisation. "From Chile there has never been constituted, as far as we know, a transnational crime organisation of the magnitude of the Clan del Golfo, the Jalisco Cartel New Generation, the First Command of the Capital, which are gangs that have crossed their borders and begun to operate actively in dozens of countries. We do not have that," he said.
Pending areas: prisons, streets and northern border
The prosecutor identified three fronts that still require adjustments: the penitentiary system, control of public order on the streets, and security on the country's northern border. However, he highlighted advances in financial matters that, he argued, exceed what is available in some developed countries.
"In Chile today, and this is not available in some European countries, the Banking Association and Banco Estado reached an agreement with the Prosecutor's Office to have a seven-day, 24-hour shift to be able to freeze current accounts or respond to urgent requests from the Prosecutor's Office," Valencia said. The prosecutor also warned criminals observing the situation: "We can do things that cannot be done abroad, as a result of coordination among different Chilean actors."
Banco Santander executive detained over links to Tren de Aragua
The detention of José Carlos Pérez Asencio, a Banco Santander executive, revealed a little-known aspect of Tren de Aragua's operation in Chile: the organisation's infiltration of the formal financial system. According to case records, Pérez Asencio allegedly made bank accounts available that were used by Tren de Aragua to receive and move money from its criminal activities.
It is the first employee of a banking institution detained in Chile in the framework of an investigation into organised crime, exposing a new dimension of how these networks operate in the country.
Valencia stated that this type of result is to be expected when investigations target the upper levels of criminal structures. "It is what the community expects, that we go after those at the top of the criminal structure, because it is the most effective way to dismantle them," he said. In that process, the prosecutor argued, one inevitably reaches the financial networks that sustain the organisations.
"You have to look at the glass as half full from the point of view that we are reaching precisely these types of people and we are removing them. We are cleaning up various institutions such as financial ones, that is very good," Valencia concluded.
Source: Google News CL — Crime