Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 - Chile
| Publisher | United States Department of State |
| Author | Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism |
| Publication Date | 30 April 2009 |
| Cite as | United States Department of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2008 - Chile, 30 April 2009, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/49fac6b0c.html [accessed 6 June 2023] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Chilean law enforcement actively cooperated in international terrorism investigations and with U.S. efforts to monitor and combat terrorist financing. Law Enforcement officials monitored possible links between extremists in Chile's Iquique Free Trade Zone and those in the Tri-Border Area, as trade links between these two areas were increasing. Chile's National Intelligence Agency remained mostly an analytical body, relying on law enforcement and investigative agencies for the vast majority of collection and operations.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) continued to support Chile's Carabineros, the National Military Police, and Gendarmes, in a number of matters related to domestic terrorism. To promote cooperation in identifying, controlling, and more efficiently preventing violent crimes and transnational organized crime, the FBI signed memoranda of cooperation with Chile's four principal law enforcement agencies; the National Prosecutors of the Public Ministry (Fiscalía Nacional – Ministerio Público), Chilean Customs (Aduanas), the Carabineros, and the Investigative police (Policía de Investigaciones, or PDI).
The Carabineros have become members of the FBI's South America Fingerprint Exchange (SAFE) Initiative, a biometric exchange program wherein foreign governments provide and exchange biometric information on violent criminal offenders with the USG. The Department of State conducted a two-week Antiterrorism Assistance (ATA) program on Interdicting Terrorist Attack, that was attended by members of the Carabineros and the PDI.
U.S. law enforcement agencies working in the Embassy continued to monitor the Coordinadora Arauco Melleca (CAM), a violent Mapuche Indian group in southern Chile that has burned fields and attacked police while fighting for land it claims belongs to it. CAM appears to have begun to organize itself and recent incidents have demonstrated increased planning and a more professional use of weapons and tactics.
Chilean police continued monitoring for possible contacts between Mapuche groups and armed political movements in Latin America and Spain. The well trained Grupo de Operaciones Policiales Especiales, a 300-person unit of the Carabineros, served as the nation's primary counterterrorist reaction force and participates annually in Exercise Fuerzas Comando, a U.S. Special Operations Command South-sponsored special operations seminar designed to refine the tactics, techniques, and procedures used by Special Operations counterterrorism forces.
