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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Chile
Index
Chile long remained relatively unaffected either by
drug
trafficking or by extensive drug abuse. Some expansion,
both of
drug trafficking and of narcotics abuse, occurred during
the late
1960s and early 1970s, reflecting an international trend.
By the
early 1970s, Chile had become an important regional center
for
cocaine processing. The problem had become sufficiently
acute to
occasion the passage of the country's first antinarcotics
law by
Allende's Popular Unity government early in 1973. Later
that year,
the military government formed a special narcotics unit
within the
Caribineros and began a big crackdown. This was highly
effective,
bringing the narcotics problem under control within a
year. The
Carabineros also pioneered the introduction of
antinarcoticsoriented , youth education programs. A pilot project was
set up in
1976, eight years before any comparable program was
initiated in
the United States. Toward the end of the period of
military rule,
a new form of drug-related crime was noted in the northern
Chilean
provinces adjoining the Bolivian and Peruvian frontiers:
the
illicit exporting to Peru and Bolivia of chemicals used in
the
processing of cocaine.
Since the early 1980s, drug trafficking has been
growing in
Chile. The country has become more prone to drug
trafficking not
only because of its geographic configuration and location,
bordering on the world's two leading producers of
coca--Peru and
Bolivia--but also because of its economic stability. With
its openmarket economy and bank-secrecy laws, Chile is an
attractive haven
for money laundering. A number of drug traffickers who
were
expelled by the military regime after the 1973 coup
cultivated
contacts with drug-trafficking groups while living in
exile in the
United States and Europe. On returning to Chile to reside,
these
traffickers, acting as finance men and heads of
operations,
profited from their international contacts. Chile served
as a good
transit country also because of its booming export
activities. In
mid-1992 an operational director of the Carabineros
reported that
money obtained through drug trafficking was being
laundered through
the construction industry in central Chile and the fishing
industry
in the far south.
In order to enhance the country's antidrug
capabilities, the
Aylwin government signed several antidrug agreements in
1992,
including one with Italy in October (which also included
antiterrorist cooperation) and one with Bolivia in
November.
Chile's most serious drug-related problems by 1992
reportedly
involved transit through the country along the northern
corridor to
Arica. In early 1993, a new cocaine/cocaine paste drug
route
reportedly came from Bolivia through the Azapa Valley, an
area with
a sizable Bolivian and Peruvian population located to the
east of
the city of Arica. At that time, the Investigations Police
began
implementing a new drug enforcement plan, with the aid of
a turbo
Cessna 206 for patrolling the area along the Bolivian and
Peruvian
borders, in coordination with motor vehicles and twenty
powerful
all-terrain Cagiva motorcycles, donated by Italy.
After 1989 drug-related crime increased dramatically,
particularly in the northern part of the country, to the
extent
that police reportedly estimated in 1990 that 20 percent
of the
population of the city of Arica between the ages of
fifteen and
thirty-four were habitual drug users. Of 385 homicides (or
0.3 per
10,000) in Chile during 1990, nearly 20 percent were
classified as
drug related. By comparison, eight were classified as
resulting
from acts of terrorism. During 1990 about 30 percent of
robberies
were also said to be drug related. The size of drug
seizures varied
considerably. In 1991 some 220,000 kilograms of cocaine
were
seized, compared with 36,500 in 1988 and 798,000 in 1989.
Police
estimated that only 10 percent of the drug traffic was
getting
intercepted. Most of the cocaine seizures occurred in the
northern
port of Arica.
Data as of March 1994
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