LatinNews Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 10 December 2015

A local think tank, Fundación Paz Ciudadana, and pollster, Adimark, last month presented the results of the ‘Índice Paz Ciudadana’ (Citizen Peace Index, IPC), which measures the percentage of those who claim to have been victims of crime in Chile. The report contained some interesting findings – despite a decline in the number of self-declared victims of robbery or attempted robbery, the percentage of respondents who said that they lived in “serious fear” was up. This exposes a problem for the Nueva Mayoría coalition government led by President Michelle Bachelet given that her perceived failure to combat crime is one of the factors (along with public corruption and a slowing economy) responsible for her low approval ratings.