The Investigations Police of Chile (PDI) has arrested this Monday Juan Flores Valenzuela, known as Indio Juan, a man who had been on the run since February 25 when he escaped from the former Penitentiary of Santiago, a prison where he was serving a life sentence for a femicide committed in 2021. On Tuesday it was revealed that Flores had a plan to assassinate the mayor of the municipality of San Bernardo, the socialist Christopher White. The government of José Antonio Kast has announced that it will reinforce the security of the mayor, who had already received other death threats.
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The fugitive, who escaped from prison along with another inmate, Tomás González Quesada, nicknamed Pelao, was found by the personnel of the Special Police Investigations Brigade (BIPE) after a large operation carried out in the La Bandera neighborhood in the municipality of San Ramón, south of the Chilean capital.
During the investigation to locate him, the PDI and the Western Prosecutor’s Office have carried out telephone interceptions. According to preliminary information, Indio Juan and his circle were planning to kill Mayor White, with an execution that was to take place before September 18, the date on which Chile celebrates the National Holidays. The motivation for this threat would be the control of the Santa Rosa de Lima and San Esteban neighborhoods, which are under dispute by drug trafficking groups and the municipal authorities of San Bernardo, who seek to recover these areas.
Once these threats became known, Mayor White expressed his concern about this threat and acknowledged that this type of action has had a profound impact on him. “It is a very strong, very hard moment for me and those who are with me. That the State notifies me that they are going to kill me is something tremendous. The truth is that with something like this one reconsiders whether it is worth continuing on this path,” he said in an interview with Chilevisión. On the same Tuesday, the mayor was transferred to a clinic in Santiago due to a health problem that has not been specified by his circle.
The death threats from Indio Juan against the mayor of San Bernardo have shocked the country. The government of José Antonio Kast has expressed its concern and said that Christopher White’s security will be reinforced. The Minister of Security, Martín Arrau, recalled that the mayor already had police protection due to another intimidating message he received in August 2025. “Security has already been increased. In fact, following this new threat; these are measures that we will not comment on publicly here, and I spoke with him yesterday, I recommended that certainly precautions must be taken when these things happen, for people who have some degree of exposure,” Arrau stated.
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The Western Prosecutor’s Office, which is in charge of the investigation, has said that the threats against the authority of San Bernardo have been reported “timely and personally” to the affected party. “In this case, a reinforcement of the security measures for the authority has been determined, in coordination with the police. This is a confidential investigation, which includes protection measures that cannot be revealed to safeguard the victim of these acts,” the Public Ministry said in a statement.
The Chilean Association of Municipalities (ACHM), the organization that brings together the mayors of Chile, has condemned the threats against the head of the municipality of San Bernardo. “The known information about an alleged plan to attack the life (of White) represents an extremely serious fact that demands a quick and forceful response from the State. No local authority can be exposed for fulfilling their duty and confronting organized crime in their territories,” the entity said in a statement. The association said it will support the mayor and has demanded that the government and the Prosecutor’s Office take measures to protect the mayors of the country.
The Chilean Association of Municipalities strongly condemns the threats that put the life of Mayor @AlcaldeWhite at risk. We call on institutions to reinforce security measures and protect local leaders and their communities. pic.twitter.com/dsaoLms6YG
— ACHM Asociación Chilena de Municipalidades (@ACHMChile) September 1, 2026
The threats against local authorities in Chile have increased in recent years. As of March this year, at least 17 mayors of the Santiago Metropolitan Region, out of a total of 52, have received death threats and eight have police protection, a sign of the security crisis Chile is experiencing and the attempt by organized crime to maintain territorial control against the efforts of municipal governments — generally with scarce resources — to recover neighborhoods and communities.
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