A Carabineros report revealed that last year 303 foreigners were arrested for illegally carrying firearms in the country.

According to the study by the uniformed police, a total of 2,780 people were arrested nationwide during 2023 for illegal carrying of weapons. In these actions, 2,752 units of weapons and also a large amount of ammunition were seized.

According to La Tercera, this figure has remained stable over the last four years. However, it was warned that the majority of foreign detainees for the aforementioned reason are of Venezuelan (156), Colombian (87) and Bolivian (18) nationality.

In this regard, the academic from the Urban Security Center of the University Alberto Hurtado Germán Díaz put this figure in context and maintained that “the South American countries from which a large part of the migrant population that arrived in Chile in recent years come are from countries with the highest rates of homicide by firearms worldwide, such as Brazil, Mexico, Colombia or Venezuela.”

Likewise, according to data from the National Homicide Report, in 2018 in Tarapacá there were 13 victims of this crime, while in 2021 and 2022, 53 murders were recorded each year in that region.