[News] Carabineros co-opted by organized crime: experts do not believe that the solution is to raise salaries

[FNX Magokiler]

They all agree that, more than a salary problem, it is necessary to reinforce training at the non-commissioned officer level, to avoid infiltration by organized crime and, likewise, one of the interviewees indicates that it is also necessary to start thinking about measures to avoid the recruitment of judges and prosecutors by the large mafia organizations that already operate in the country.

The arrest of two Carabineros non-commissioned officers, accused of delivering (in exchange for money) information and weapons to individuals linked to the radical Mapuche Resistance group Lafkenche, in Curanilahue, revealed in the south of the country something that had already been seen in the north, which is the way in which different criminal organizations are seeking to co-opt police non-commissioned officers to cooperate with them, as already happened with “los Gallegos” in Arica, who had captured a former police officer, who provided them with weapons and vehicles, or as happened at the Quillagua checkpoint, where several former police officers were convicted, after it was established that they charged two million pesos for turning a blind eye to the passage of trucks with contraband or drugs.

By the way, these are not the only cases, and in various prosecutor's offices, especially in the northern zone, there is concern about the justifications of the subjects who became corrupt, who justify their actions based on their income, as one of the accused said in the trial for what happened in Quillagua, a second sergeant who reported that, after discounts, his net salary was close to 900 thousand pesos, implying that this was an “excuse.”

By the way, that happened in the middle of the pandemic and today that figure reaches 1.5 million, according to the information available on the Carabineros website, in which it is possible to see that a carabinero earns 758 thousand liquid pesos; a second corporal, 943 thousand; a first corporal, one million 144; a second sergeant, one million 534.

 

 

A first sergeant, one million 717; a non-commissioned officer, one million 905, and a senior non-commissioned officer, two million 147, to which must be added a series of assignments that vary case by case.

Two weeks ago, the Chamber of Deputies approved the report of the Special Investigative Commission on crime in the northern macrozone, and in it the issue of Carabineros salaries was widely discussed, estimating that it was necessary to increase them, along with improving the working conditions of the police and also of the PDI officials who work in that area.

The Carabineros non-commissioned officer is, by the way, what is most worrying, given that it is its members who are mostly on the streets and are, therefore, the first line of containment against organized crime.

Police, but also judges and prosecutors

However, not everyone agrees with the idea that it is necessary to increase salaries to reduce the risk of corruption. Pablo Zeballos, who was a Carabineros officer and is the founder of iTask Consulting, a risk analysis firm that works at the Latin American level, points out that “increasing salaries may be a measure, but it does not guarantee avoiding the criminal recruitment of police officers.” ”, as he points out that “for our Latin American reality, the salaries of police officers are higher than those of other police forces. That is a reality, as it is also that the events of co-opted police in Chile are proportionally lower than what one could understand in Latin America, with some exceptions," among which he mentions the Argentine Gendarmerie, "which has lower corruption rates. those that the Argentine police traditionally have.”

Furthermore, he indicates, many of the cases that are reported "come from the Carabineros' own internal capacity to detect their presence, as well as Investigations."

 

https://www.elmostrador.cl/noticias/pais/2023/10/08/carabineros-cooptados-por-crimen-organizado-expertos-no-creen-que-solucion-sea-subir-sueldos/