MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“Surprise” muggings in Chile jump over 16%

Foreigners travelling to South America often fear muggings and go to great lengths to avoid situations in which they might be a target for street crime. Though Chile is widely believed to be a safer destination than other countries on the continent, statistics show that in recent months “surprise” muggings have increased by over 16%.

The Chilean Interior Ministry released crime figures on Wednesday for the third quarter of 2006. Snatch-and-run muggings, called "lanzazos," show the sharpest increase of all crimes counted in the Interior Minister's report. Other crimes that have increased this past quarter include robberies by intimidation, domestic violence and common assault.

The report shows that though lanzazos are up some crime rates are dropping. Homicide and rape have decreased by more than ten percent, and violent muggings, "forceful" robberies and miscellaneous robberies are all down as well.

Citing overcrowding in prison among other reasons Congress recently eliminated surprise muggings from their list of serious crimes. The elimination was part of a short-term plan for reducing crime, and proponents argued that, though it occurs frequently, it is not a dangerous crime.

Gonzalo Vargas, director of the crime reduction NGO Paz Ciudadana, said that to combat mugging "we need to increase police presence in public view, install more security cameras, and tackle the black market for stolen goods and work to rehabilitate delinquents that commit these crimes, because many are drug addicts."

Unfortunately for tourists muggings seem to be most prevalent in some of Santiago's most visited areas. The boroughs with the most reported cases were Santiago Center and Providencia. Nationwide, the Metropolitan Region showed only a slight change (an increase of 5.7%) while Region XI (Aysén) saw a substantial increase of 117%. The Santiago Times