• 3 min de lectura
• 3 min de lectura
The fight against organized crime demands firm decisions, but firmness is not synonymous with overlapping institutions or believing that more uniforms in the same space will, by themselves, produce better results.
The proposal by President José Antonio Kast's Government to expand the presence and powers of Carabineros and the PDI in areas subject to customs control opens a necessary discussion. The question is not whether Chile needs to combat drug trafficking and transnational crime with greater force. That is beyond discussion.
The question is different: why introduce police into an area where a specialized institution with legal attributes and technical knowledge to control goods entering and leaving the country already exists?
And there is an even more uncomfortable question: does this proposal mean that Customs is considered insufficient to fulfill its function?
Before changing the control structure, it is necessary to explain what specific problem is intended to be solved. Customs inspection is a highly technical task. It does not simply consist of opening containers or stopping trucks. It requires information, intelligence, data analysis, and risk management. Customs is not designed to inspect everything; it is designed to identify where to inspect.
Modern control depends precisely on this capability. Attempting to indiscriminately inspect every cargo would mean stopping trade, increasing costs, and affecting international trade facilitation obligations. Effectiveness is not in controlling everything, but in knowing what to control and why.
The paradox is evident. If the diagnosis is that there are gaps in confronting organized crime, then one must ask what they are. Are there too few officials? Is there a lack of technology? Scanners? Information systems? Budget? Analytical capacity?
If that is the problem, the answer cannot simply be to place police next to the customs inspector. That does not necessarily strengthen the State; it can fragment it.
Carabineros and the PDI fulfill essential functions in public security and criminal prosecution. Customs, for its part, has a specific mission in controlling the entry and exit of goods and in detecting illicit activities associated with international trade.
The challenge should not be for one institution to do what another already knows how to do. It should be for them to share intelligence, coordinate investigations, and act jointly when appropriate, respecting functions and responsibilities.
In customs inspection, the best results do not come from inspecting everything or multiplying controls without criteria. They come from identifying risks, analyzing information, and directing resources to where they are truly needed.
The current Government faces a real and growing challenge. But precisely because of the seriousness of the problem, solutions cannot be reduced to signals of toughening. Organized crime is sophisticated; the State's response must also be. More police in a customs area can be a powerful image, but an image does not replace a strategy.
In this vein, it is relevant that the authorities' own discourse has increasingly incorporated the need to modernize and strengthen Customs' capabilities. This shift is consistent with the nature of the challenge: if the aim is to improve results against organized crime, the path is not only to add police presence but also to provide the specialized institution with better tools, technology, intelligence, and resources to effectively exercise its function.
Customs is not an obstacle to security: it is part of the solution. Therefore, along with any new security strategy, Chile must advance towards a more modern, better-equipped Customs with greater capabilities to effectively fulfill its mission, because strengthening customs control is not only strengthening foreign trade: it is also strengthening the country's security.
