Original article: El dato que desapareció: Fiscalía quitó del informe de homicidios las muertes por agentes del Estado
Aimed at ensuring transparency in statistical reporting, what unfolded became a controversy when the results of the National Homicide Report 2025 were presented last March. Notably, the official document excluded a figure present in its original version: the number of deaths caused directly by state agents. This figure, initially part of the section on “criminals deceased in the context of their own offenses,” was removed at the explicit request of the Public Ministry.
According to an investigation by Reportea, this decision is linked to a category that has nearly tripled since 2018, following the contentious Naín Retamal Law, enacted in 2023 which amended the Penal Code to enhance protections for police officers. Experts attribute this phenomenon to cultural and regulatory changes in the use of lethal force by law enforcement.
The Data that Disappeared from the Official Report
The report, compiled by the Ministry of Security, the prosecutor’s office, the Investigative Police (PDI), Carabineros, and the Gendarmerie, originally contained a specific breakdown: the deaths caused by state agents categorized as “criminals deceased in their own offense context.” However, this detail vanished from the final version released in early March.
Sources from former President Gabriel Boric’s administration confirmed to Reportea that the decision was made in the final weeks of his term, following a request from the Public Ministry.
The prosecutor’s office justified the request by stating that the breakdown “did not align with the agreed methodological guidelines” from the Ministry of Security. In a written response, they mentioned that the report “does not provide information—neither in the 2025 publication nor in previous versions—about the perpetrators of consummated homicide crimes, who commits them, their professions, or the official status of the perpetrator.” As a result, the statistics on deaths caused by police have remained outside of public debate.
The Silent Growth of a Controversial Category
Despite the omission, Reportea accessed the total figures under the item “criminals deceased in their own offense context.” The data indicates a clear trend: between 2018 and 2022, the numbers fluctuated between 23 and 35 annual homicides. However, in 2023 the curve broke with 49 deaths, and in 2024 the figure rose to 72. According to consulted sources, state agents were responsible for over 40 deaths within this category in 2025 alone.
This increase coincides with the enactment of the Naín Retamal Law in April 2023, which provided greater legal protections to uniformed personnel and established the concept of “privileged self-defense,” under which the victim must prove that the aggression was not in self-defense when excessive force is used.
The “Naín Retamal Effect” and Privileged Self-Defense
Experts believe this temporal correlation is no coincidence. Mauricio Duce, an academic and researcher at the Millennium Nucleus of Criminal Complexity at the Catholic University and the University of Tarapacá, suggested that the increase “could be a consequence of legislative changes we experienced in 2023, particularly the Naín Retamal Law.”
“This is a plausible hypothesis, as it pertains to the sphere of protection of legitimate defense, thus officials may feel more secure regarding their use of lethal weapons. This could reflect a greater use of lethal force as a defense mechanism, potentially increasing the lethality of these interventions,” he told Reportea.
However, the researcher clarifies that he does not foresee a significant increase in the numbers of criminals deceased at the hands of civilians or police beyond that factor.
Alejandra Mohor, a researcher at the Center for Studies on Citizen Security (CESC) at the University of Chile, agrees on the diagnosis but adds a cultural layer.
“We can again hypothesize that this controversial law has generated a perception among police agents that they can effectively act according to their mandates, but to the maximum extent of what they are allowed,” she explained. For Mohor, the regulatory framework is merely an extension of what Duce refers to as a “punitive cultural context”: what society deems acceptable in dealing with crime.
State Transparency on Deaths Caused by Its Own Agents
Beyond hypotheses, experts concur on a central point: the necessity for the state to disclose the deaths caused by its own agents.
Duce emphasized that these figures must be presented to the public “for reasons of transparency, but also for the benefit of the system itself, to better understand the phenomena.”
He remarked that although they do not necessarily need to be part of the report summary, they should be recorded in a database “that the public can access.”
Mohor elevated the demand to a democratic principle, stating that “it’s not just about convenience or importance.”
“In a democratic framework, this is a requirement for adequate oversight regarding the use of force by state agents,” she asserted.
She also warned about the normalization of violence. “When everyone is convinced that simply labeling someone as a criminal justifies extreme penalties, then what’s the point of a democratic framework? What’s the point of procedural safeguards? What about rights guarantees?”, she questioned in her statements to the cited media outlet.
Death of Horacio Boudon at the Hands of Carabineros
The case of Horacio Boudon, a 26-year-old with no criminal record who was shot by a police officer during a vehicle inspection in San Bernardo in March, illustrates the concrete consequences of this statistical discussion.
As Mohor concludes, the Naín Retamal law is a symptom, not the root cause: “If we repeal the law tomorrow, I assure you the scenario will not change significantly.” As long as the data on deaths by state agents remains excluded from official reports, Chilean democracy will continue to debate blindly the true cost of its security policy.
