Residents of Chile’s northern border demand that it not be closed

SANTIAGO (AP) – The intensification of control on Chile’s northern border with Peru and Bolivia with several hundred soldiers stationed in the area, as a measure to curb massive illegal immigration, has reduced the incessant arrival of undocumented foreigners but also affected residents of the border area.

“The military is fine, giving orders is their duty, I understand,” said Flora García, a resident of Colchane, a small town some 2,000 kilometers north of the Chilean capital, on Wednesday. “But also that they understand us, that they don’t close themselves off,” said the woman about the requirement that crossing the border must be done through the control zone.

Almost every day, hundreds of people cross from one country to another to buy or sell their products, without going through any paperwork, but now, with the army, they have problems. García claimed that uniformed officers tell them the border has been closed, “but it’s not like that.” Several said they had been detained, although they explained that they used to move between Chile, Peru and Bolivia.

The mayor of Colchane, Javier García, explained to the Associated Press that “migrants enter through sectors much further away from border control”, that is to say 15 or 20 kilometers from this community which, during long, seemed crowded with foreigners. . Many were camping on the beaches and in some of the main squares of towns like Iquique, 1,800 kilometers to the north.

Just over 330 soldiers were deployed earlier this week in the northern regions of Arica and Parinacota, Tarapacá and Antofagasta to collaborate with the police in the control of illegal immigrants, a problem that the government of President Gabriel Boric does not has not been able to resolve since coming to power a year ago. They arrested an unknown number of people.

Boric, with the support of Congress, gave the military powers they did not have and can now perform identity checks, search luggage and even detain those they suspect of committing crimes. Several foreigners, including several families, were arrested by uniformed officers, who are required to hand them over to the police within a maximum of 24 hours.

Army Second Lieutenant Claudio Guzmán explained to the AP that “the work we have with the police is to provide technology and transport to control illegal migration and drug trafficking”.

The decree to use the armed forces in border control lasts 90 days and, with the support of Congress, can be extended for another three months.

Undocumented foreigners are sent back to Peru or Bolivia through the same irregular passage through which they entered, but in the case of the government of La Paz, it receives only its compatriots and rejects the others. Bolivia severed diplomatic relations with Chile in 1978 and there are only consular relations.

The government claims that it is not forbidden to enter Chile and that what is not accepted is going through illegal steps.

The military presence at the border was requested by the local authorities of the northern towns.