In a collective effort, various institutions gathered on October 8 at the headquarters of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, convened by Fundación Amparo y Justicia. This first meeting brought together authorities and representatives from the Forensic Medical Service (SML), Carabineros de Chile, the Police Investigations Unit (PDI), the Judiciary, the Subsecretary for Children, the Ministry of Health, the Subsecretary for Crime Prevention, and the Children’s Ombudsman.
With the aim of strengthening the detection and investigation of suspicious deaths and homicides of children and adolescents (NNA) in Chile, the key institutions involved in detecting these crimes came together for the first collaborative working group to address this issue.
Fundación Amparo y Justicia conducted a diagnostic report using data from various institutions. According to figures obtained from the Subsecretary of the Interior, this phenomenon has increased by 78% over the past five years. Additionally, the Homicide Observatory recently reported a 23% rise in these crimes in 2023, with 66 cases recorded.
While the majority of victims are adolescents aged 14 to 17 years (68%), a recent report from the Public Prosecutor’s Office pointed to the most significant shift in this phenomenon, which has been the rise in homicides related to domestic violence. This category saw a staggering 600% increase in the past year, with cases jumping from 2 in 2022 to 14 in 2023.
These alarming figures led to a series of meetings that culminated in the creation of an unprecedented working group composed of multiple institutions. The first session took place on Tuesday, October 8, at the Public Prosecutor’s Office headquarters.
Tatiana Esquivel, Regional Prosecutor for Los Ríos, emphasized the importance of this initiative, stating, “Strengthening the investigation of homicides of children and adolescents is a major task. This working group highlights the collective effort that the State must provide in response to these incidents.”
María Elena Santibáñez, lawyer and director of Fundación Amparo y Justicia, highlighted, “Through this joint effort, we aim to propose solutions suited to our reality and context that will enhance the system’s response to suspicious deaths and homicides of children and adolescents.”
Other key figures
The analysis conducted by Fundación Amparo y Justicia also revealed that the judicial processes related to these crimes are lengthy, taking between 2 to 4 and a half years to be concluded.
Similarly, international evidence indicates that detecting and investigating the homicides of children is more complex than in the case of adults. In Chile, between 2018 and 2022, 343 autopsies were performed on children where the cause of death could not be determined.
