The mission of Carabinieri experts to Chile – promoted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), in response to the Chilean request for Italian forensic and investigative assistance to determine the causes, origin and nature of the spreading of numerous forest fires that have caused 24 deaths and devastated over 400,000 hectares of forest in the country’s central-southern regions – has come to a successful conclusion. It had begun on 11 February.
The technical-operational consultancy provided by Italy is part of the Falcone-Borsellino Programme, an Italian multidimensional technical assistance initiative to combat crime in Latin American and Caribbean countries, conceived and funded by MAECI’s Directorate General for Globalisation and managed by the International Italian-Latin American Organisation (IILA).
The two-week mission benefited from the scientific contribution provided by the close collaboration of the Carabinieri‘s Forestry and Environmental Unit Command and the Aerospace Engineering Department of Rome’s La Sapienza University. Through satellite analysis, using national technology, it was possible to monitor the vast fires in Chilean territory.
In particular, Lieutenant Colonel of the Carabinieri, Renato Sciunnach, and Captain Claudia Matera – both also biologists – together with Non-Commissioned Officer Maurizio Amendola, an expert in satellite technology, were engaged in investigation activities in the Araucania region, 670 km south of the capital Santiago, and in the city of Lumaco.
Foto credits ufficio stampa Carabinieri
