SANTIAGO, Chile. – Chilean genius José Reyes, 42, middle-aged and resident of the municipality of Santiago, paid $310 at the end of last year for a car to pick him up at his house and two armed guards to follow him. they would withdraw about $10,000 to the bank. He made a decision, he comments on the phone, after two acquaintances are robbed while leaving a bank branch, they notice a criminal phenomenon where they attack a man inside the office and, when he leaves, violently take his money.
This crime is not new, but the Investigative Police (PDI) explains that it has increased to record numbers – and has become more complicated because organized gangs operate. The government of Gabriel Boric has directed an uproar at the rise of “bank managers” because there is no law that specifically regulates it. The administration’s job is to implement the Privacy Act of 2023 and, in the meantime, strengthen control of those who provide these services.
Reyes, who works as the head of prevention for a plastics company, hired the company’s security services as Group. César Bustos, the general manager of the brand, comments that in 2019 they hired only 18 customers for the payment of the bank. In 2020, 48 people did; in 2021, 200; and in 2022, 245. At the same time, the crime of “going out of the bank” has also increased. Between 2017 and 2021, the annual average was 400 cases. In September 2022, the figure has already exceeded 500 according to the Metropolitan Prosecutor’s Office, and is projected to close the year with more than 700.
The investigation of the Brigade investigation Deputy Joel Soto of the North Central Robbery by telephone explains that the crime is highly desired among thieves because of how easy it is to obtain large sums of money. He declares that the charge was not imported, but that the route operated was changed. “Before the incident, the victim was followed, the car stopped, he offered to help him and stole from him. It was theft. Now it’s a crime with the use of weapons, violence, gangs,” affirms Soto.
Bustos, from the As Group, indicates that before the social uprising of October 2019, the figure of clients were contractors from the richest parts of Santiago, who went to the bank at the end and beginning of the month to withdraw their salaries. a company Now he says that he asks for his work every day of the month and in popular parts of the city, such as the municipalities of San Miguel, Pudahuel or Colina.
The most basic service costs around $125 and consists of an escort who accompanies the client on foot. The most expensive is 750 dollars, where three soldiers and three vehicles participate. It has a prior recognition of the bank branch, different routes for passengers depending on the risk, security that monitors before and after the operation in the bank is visible and has a high level of implementation so that the client “sees himself as safe as possible” and realizes. the effects of deterrence. Defense security works differently. This company combines its bankers as closely as possible with the social environment where the bank is located.
Marco Price, the general manager of Defense Security, insists that “Hollywood” should not have a vision of satellites. “They are not armed guards who fight against the majority and eliminate 15. In my company there are people who go unarmed and who work according to the intelligence and handling of the escape procedure, knowing where to go, at what time the most vulnerable points, he says by phone.
99% of the more than 200 soldiers who, like the Group, are former agents of the armed forces, according to information provided by Bustos. Ex-military personnel, like ex-chiefs of police, have the right to bear arms. “If the manager is attacked in the process, he can use his weapon in the right of legitimate defense. If they attack the person being prosecuted, there is a legal vacuum that needs to be discussed,” says Bustos.
The Undersecretary for Crime Prevention, Eduardo Vergara, explains in writings that now the activity of “private agents” is not only unregulated, but also “into a market without institutions, which has no sign of quality, nor training course; or protocols of action, or minimum requirements for those who they act as security guards for those who hire them, who at the end of the day affect the safety of people. While they are working as a process of private security law, Vergara advises the government to strengthen those who have a license to practice private security, such as companies and security guards to “retain them in their work “.
The Boric government is working on a strong security agenda, as explained in EL PAÍS by the undersecretary of the Ministry of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve. Initiatives such as the Center for Homicide Prevention, or the first policy against organized crime, sought to reduce the suspicions of the citizenry, which has reached its highest level in two decades.
The cost of Major Crimes of Social Connotation will increase by 44.6% in 2022 compared to 2021, according to the annual report of the Center for Crime Studies and Analysis of the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention published two weeks ago. The crimes that recorded the greatest increase were robberies of violence or threats (63.1%) – this category includes “bank robbery” – surprise robbery (61.2%) and robbery in an uninhabitable place (56.4%).
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