ABSTRACT

The 2000s decade witnessed Chile’s exposure to international global trends of democratic responses to the rule of law and transnational organised crime. The authorities decided to put the country back on the map of shared agreements and the multilateral global efforts to confront insecurity since the country had experienced greater international isolation during the last years of the dictatorial regime. This way, the governance of organised crime was subject to both internal and external drivers of change that gradually influenced its policy-making. Also, the modern judicial reform commenced to take place gradually in the country, criminalising illegal behaviours through a new institution: the Public Ministry. The chapter therefore emphasises two ideas. First, it considers how the Public Ministry was capable of accommodating legal beliefs and guidelines, while second, it explores how it moved on to engage in inter-institutional security governance after gauging its own appreciations of the criminal phenomena occurring in Chile and in Latin America; that is, once acknowledging that network governance was critical in ensuring results in the affairs of security policy-making. The chapter concludes by arguing that the governance of organised crime became more evident as additional inter-institutional engagements were promoted among security actors, though not always successful, to counter drug-trafficking and money laundering.