The Chilean Army reinforces the border with Peru and Bolivia with military surveillance posts

In recent days, the Chilean Army began installing military surveillance posts on the border with Peru and Bolivia to intensify surveillance and detect and control the illegal entry of people in the regions of Arica and Parinacota, Tarapacá, and Antofagasta.

The Chilean Government, through Supreme Decree N°78 of 2023, established the deployment of the Armed Forces in these regions of the Northern Macrozone to increase border control tasks due to an increase in migratory flow into the country and an increase in crime rates in these areas.

The surveillance posts will be in places such as Chacalluta, Visviri, and Chungará in Arica and Parinacota; Colchane and Olca (near Coya) in the Tarapacá Region and Jama, Sico, Ollagüe, and Hito Cajón in Antofagasta.

In addition, surveillance drones will be integrated into these tasks.

MODULAR DESIGN

Chile’s Ministry of the Interior and Public Security told Las Últimas Noticias that within the framework of the Critical Infrastructure Law, an initiative that includes border protection, an essential structural improvement plan was made for each of the observation posts on the northern border, as they were sites that did not have adequate facilities for personnel.

The facilities were designed from containers and had thermal cameras that could detect people entering through unauthorized crossings at a distance of up to 5 km in the dark at night and up to 10 km in daylight.

They have a generator to generate electricity and solar batteries for backup.

The posts, linked via satellite to the Army Operations Center, have perimeter surveillance cameras and a computer to back up the images, bunk beds, bathroom, heating, air conditioning, thermal insulation, gas stove, electric grill, cooking utensils, and a lightning rod system.

The control points have a camera mounted on a telescopic mast to observe from the inside if weather conditions are adverse and are supported by mobile patrols of 25 Army vehicles, including trucks for transporting cargo and military personnel and all-terrain vans.

With information from Infodefensa