The President passes Anti-Carjacking Law and asks Congress to approve preventive ID control and for changes in juvenile criminal responsibility
Stealing a motor vehicle by surprising or distracting the victim with violence or intimidation – carjacking - can lead to a 20-year prison sentence.
On Friday, President Sebastián Piñera passed the Anti-Carjacking Law, which increases the sanctions for car theft and punishes more severely the use of violence to commit these crimes.
“This law will allow us to more effectively fight carjacking, which has caused so much harm and suffering,” the President said, after meeting with Irma and Luis, the parents of Fabián González, a 22 year old man who died in January after being shot by unknown perpetrators in front of his house in the Estación Central neighborhood of Santiago.
The law, introduced by President Piñera in June 2018 and enacted at the end of May in Congress, establishes that the act of stealing a motor vehicle that involves surprising or distracting the victim carries a prison term of between 3 years and one day and 5 years. In cases where violence or intimidation were used, the sentence can lead to a jail term of between 5 years and one day and 20 years.
“We are doing everything humanly possible, with every tool provided by law, to fight crime,” the President said. He was accompanied by Interior and Public Security Minister Andrés Chadwick, and Crime Prevention Undersecretary Katherine Martorell, who both played an active role in processing and defending the bill of law.
The law states that if there is a child or person inside the car during the theft that cannot leave the vehicle by his or her own means, the offender faces a prison sentence of between 10 years and one day and 20 years. The law also stipulates that breaking car windows while someone is inside the vehicle is a robbery with violence and intimidation, which carries a sentence of between 5 years and one day and 20 years.
In addition, the sentence for receiving a stolen vehicle will increase, with a prison term of 4 to 5 years if it is known that the car was stolen with violence. Reported car thefts will also be included in the Motor Vehicle Registry of the Civil Registry Service, specifying the car’s information and the circumstances under which it was stolen.
During the law enactment ceremony, President Piñera also called on Congress to approve other bills, such as the Law on Juvenile Criminal Responsibility and the Law on Preventive ID Control.
“Crime and drug trafficking are tremendous enemies, merciless and cruel, that respect no one and nothing, and we need to fight them with all our strength and willpower, with the full force of the law and full commitment of society,” the President concluded.