There is much imitation and much of it has become an industry
En Chile, lo que alguna vez fue excepcional se ha convertido en patrón: los homicidios por encargo, antes rareza jurídica, emergen hoy como síntoma de una criminalidad organizada que madura en silencio. No con la estridencia de otros países latinoamericanos, sino con la discreción de quien ha aprendido que la eficacia no requiere espectáculo. El sicariato chileno no domina los titulares, pero sus raíces se profundizan, y esa invisibilidad es, quizás, su rasgo más inquietante.
- Los casos de sicariato en Chile han pasado de ser hechos aislados a registrarse entre cinco y seis veces por año, una frecuencia que las autoridades ya no pueden atribuir a la casualidad.
- El narcotráfico actúa como motor principal: organizaciones criminales contratan asesinos para cobrar deudas, defender territorios y disciplinar a quienes se desvían, convirtiendo el homicidio en herramienta de gestión.
- Los precios oscilan entre los $2.600 y los $13.000 dólares, pero la economía del crimen evoluciona: algunos sicarios ya no trabajan por encargo sino como empleados fijos de las redes delictivas.
- Los casos documentados revelan una geografía humana perturbadora: errores de identidad que matan a inocentes, familias que se destruyen desde adentro, y mujeres jóvenes asesinadas por celos o deudas sentimentales.
- Chile no ha alcanzado los niveles de violencia de México o Colombia, pero la profesionalización silenciosa del crimen organizado sugiere que la distancia se acorta con cada año que pasa.
Chile observa un ascenso discreto pero sostenido del sicariato. No hay masacres que paralicen ciudades ni titulares que dominen la prensa internacional, pero el patrón es claro: lo que antes era raro se está volviendo rutina.
Sabás Chahuán, ex fiscal nacional, señala que el homicidio por encargo existe en el código penal chileno desde el siglo XIX, pero su frecuencia ha cambiado. Hace cuatro años se registraban cinco o seis casos anuales; hoy son más. "Se ha convertido en una industria", advierte. Harold Mackay, de la Brigada Antinarcóticos Metropolitana, añade que los sicarios chilenos son más contenidos que sus pares regionales, pero esa moderación no implica ineficacia.
La economía del crimen lo explica en parte: los pagos van de 600.000 a dos millones de pesos chilenos. Pero el modelo está cambiando. Algunos sicarios han dejado de trabajar como contratistas independientes para integrarse como personal de seguridad asalariado dentro de organizaciones criminales, activándose cuando alguien no paga o invade territorio ajeno.
Los casos concretos revelan la amplitud del fenómeno. María del Pilar Pérez contrató a un hombre para matar a su propia familia por disputas de herencia; el asesino mató a la persona equivocada. En Valdivia, dos mujeres pagaron más de nueve mil dólares para eliminar a una rival amorosa de 21 años. En Las Condes, una anciana fue asesinada en su propia casa por atacantes que su nieta dejó entrar.
El narcotráfico marca varios de estos crímenes. En 2015, una organización en La Legua contrató a un colombiano para matar a un adolescente que les debía dinero, convirtiéndolo en el primer sicario extranjero documentado en Chile. En 2020, un empresario inmobiliario fue asesinado frente a su casa en Concón tras denunciar ocupaciones ilegales de sus propiedades.
Lo que emerge no es una explosión repentina sino una normalización gradual. Las redes existen, los precios son negociables, y la profesionalización silenciosa del homicidio por encargo puede ser, precisamente por su discreción, el desarrollo más perturbador de todos.
Chile is watching a quiet but steady rise in contract killings. Not the spectacular violence of Mexico or Colombia—nothing that dominates the evening news or paralyzes a city. But enough that security officials are paying attention, and enough that the pattern is unmistakable: what used to be rare is becoming routine.
Sabás Chahuán, who served as Chile's national prosecutor, frames it carefully. Contract killing has existed in the country's legal code since the nineteenth century, he notes, but the frequency has shifted. Four years ago, authorities were tracking five or six cases annually. Now they're seeing more. "There is much imitation and much of it has become an industry," Chahuán said. The distinction matters: Chile's hitmen operate with less theatrical brutality than their counterparts across the border, yet they remain effective. Harold Mackay, a subdirector at the Metropolitan Anti-Narcotics Brigade of Chile's investigative police, observes that the difference lies in decisiveness and the degree of violence deployed. Chilean sicarios are more restrained, but restraint does not mean incompetence.
The money tells part of the story. Court records show payments ranging from roughly 600,000 Chilean pesos—about $2,600 USD—to two million pesos, or $13,000. But the economics are shifting. Some hitmen have stopped freelancing entirely. They've integrated into criminal organizations as salaried security personnel, their primary function to protect drug operations and enforce discipline within the network. When someone owes money or encroaches on territory, that's when the contract killing apparatus activates. It's infrastructure, not impulse.
The cases pile up with a grim specificity. María del Pilar Pérez, known as "La Quintrala," hired a man named José Ruz to murder her own family over inheritance disputes and relationship grievances. Ruz was supposed to kill her sister, mother, brother-in-law, and niece in their Providencia home. He killed the wrong person instead—Diego Schmidt-Hebbel, a young man visiting his girlfriend, shot by mistake. Pérez is now serving a life sentence. In Valdivia, a 21-year-old named Helena Bustos was found floating in the Calle Calle River. Two women had paid 7 million pesos—roughly $9,300—to have her killed over a romantic entanglement. In Las Condes, an elderly woman named Elba Espinoza was murdered in her home by attackers her own granddaughter let inside. The girl hated her grandmother enough to arrange her death.
The drug trade drives much of this. In 2015, police investigating a narco operation in La Legua discovered the organization had hired a Colombian national, Óscar Melián Villagra, to execute a 17-year-old boy who owed them money. He was paid 600,000 pesos—about $800. Melián Villagra became the first foreign hitman documented committing contract murder in Chile. In August 2017, a Bolivian woman named Rosalva Gómez Bejarano was found dead on a highway in the far north, killed on orders from her partner, a Colombian trafficker known as "El Pollo." In May 2020, a real estate developer named Alejandro Correa was shot multiple times outside his home in Concón after he'd reported illegal occupations of his properties. The man arrested, Víctor Gutiérrez Londoño, confessed to the killing and said he'd been paid 5 million pesos—about $6,650.
What emerges is not a sudden explosion but a normalization. The infrastructure exists. The networks are in place. The price is negotiable. And in a country where organized crime has learned to operate with less spectacle than its neighbors, the quiet professionalization of murder for hire may be the more unsettling development.
Citações Notáveis
The sicariato has existed since always, but in the last four years there have been more cases. We are talking about five or six per year, even more.— Sabás Chahuán, former national prosecutor of Chile
The great difference is marked in the level of decision when committing the crime and in the level of violence— Harold Mackay, subdirector of the Metropolitan Anti-Narcotics Brigade
A Conversa do Hearth Outra perspectiva sobre a história
Why does Chile matter here? Mexico and Colombia have thousands of these killings annually. Five or six a year sounds almost manageable.
That's exactly the wrong way to read it. It's not about absolute numbers—it's about trajectory and what it signals. Chile built a reputation as the most stable country in Latin America. These cases represent a threshold being crossed, a capability that didn't exist before.
So it's the trend, not the current scale.
Precisely. And the structure underneath. These aren't desperate freelancers. Some of these killers are now on criminal payroll, doing security work, waiting for orders. That's institutional. That's organized.
The source mentions that Chilean hitmen are less violent than Mexican or Colombian ones. How is that possible if they're equally effective?
Efficiency doesn't require spectacle. You don't need to torture someone to kill them. A bullet works the same way whether it's delivered with rage or calculation. The restraint might actually make them harder to catch—less drama, fewer witnesses, less investigation pressure.
And the money—600,000 pesos to kill a teenager who owed money. That's cheap.
It is. Which means the barrier to entry is lower. You don't need a fortune to commission a murder. That democratizes violence in a way that's dangerous.
What happens next? Does this keep accelerating?
That depends on whether the criminal organizations see it as effective and whether law enforcement can disrupt the networks. Right now, it's working for them. The cases are solved sometimes, but the infrastructure remains intact.