Barbed wire fences, jewelry with panic buttons, armored cars, and traces of blood on the streets. Chile is facing a rise in organized crime that has tarnished its reputation as one of the last safe countries in Latin America. Along with Argentina, Costa Rica, and Uruguay, Chile had, until just over a decade ago, one of the lowest homicide rates in the region (2.5 per 100,000 inhabitants), according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. That indicator has soared since 2012, reaching 6.7 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants in 2022, still below the regional average of the Americas (15), the continent with the highest crime rates of this type in the world, according to the latest available data from the organization. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES