(Bloomberg) -- Chile President Gabriel Boric canceled a trip to the Olympic Games this month after a spate of high-profile murders stunned one of Latin America’s safest nations, forcing the government into action.
Boric said on Thursday he will stay in Chile as he pressures lawmakers to pass a proposal streamlining the construction of a high-security jail, as well as legislation modernizing the government’s intelligence apparatus. The administration will form a crime-fighting task force made up of representatives from several institutions and also bolster prison security.
“I have decided to suspend my participation in the inauguration of the Olympic Games in Paris in order to directly supervise these areas, the introduction of these bills and to obtain results,” he told reporters.
Boric’s administration is trying to head off criticism from both coalition and opposition lawmakers after at least 17 people — including several teenagers — were murdered in Santiago over a long weekend. Those homicides exacerbated existing fears over insecurity that have catapulted crime to the top voter concern, according to local polls. Still, the government is resisting calls to implement a state of emergency in the nation’s capital.
Earlier this week, the administration said it would implement additional measures including a redistribution of police officers in Santiago and a stricter oversight of the city’s migrant population, including identity checks.
Boric got good news in April, when government data showed homicides fell 6% in 2023 after having surged the year prior. The numbers for 2024 showed further improvement following the end of the Southern Hemisphere summer in March, Interior Minister Carolina Toha said in an interview last month.
But, Toha said this week that murders in Santiago have ticked up year-to-date in comparison with 2023.
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