Amílcar Olivares Cárdenas, 46, escaped from the Colina II Penitentiary Center on Sunday afternoon. The man charged with robbery with intimidation bypassed the high-security facility's controls, triggering a joint search operation by Gendarmería, Carabineros, and the PDI. Authorities acknowledge protocol breaches and will examine why his monitoring was not intensified despite a prior escape in 2009.
The escape took place at 17:27 on Sunday, November 23, 2025, at the Colina II Penitentiary Center in the northern zone of the Metropolitan Region. Amílcar Olivares Cárdenas, 46, jumped a perimeter fence at the front of the facility, bypassing internal and armed guards, before fleeing in an unknown direction. Olivares had been in preventive detention since July for robbery with intimidation, ordered by the Tenth Guarantee Court of Santiago. He had previously served a sentence at the same prison and escaped from it in 2009; he also worked as a cook there, giving him detailed knowledge of its layout.
Justice Undersecretary Ernesto Muñoz confirmed no external assistance in the evasion and stressed: “The priority today is to achieve his recapture.” Muñoz acknowledged a breach of protocols, noting that a 17-measure security plan implemented after an escape in Valparaíso was not fully followed. “This inmate had a prior record and, therefore, what we will review [...] is why [...] it was not properly considered for his monitoring,” he stated. He described Olivares as “an individual with high criminal commitment, with a criminogenic profile that requires maximum attention.”
Gendarmería immediately activated protocols: it conducted a census of the prison population to confirm only one inmate escaped and deployed special units. Operational Inspector Colonel Mario Cid stated: “In the first instance, we can confirm there is no other escaped inmate, but by protocol, each module is reviewed.” Metropolitan Regional Director Colonel Héctor Labrín detailed that the Public Ministry will be informed and administrative summaries initiated to determine responsibilities. “Today what corresponds to us is to gather the background [...] and determine the responsibilities of the service personnel,” Labrín said. Cid added that cameras and sensors are being reviewed, recalling that “there is no prison system in the world that has not had some type of escape.”
The recapture operation involves Carabineros from the 8th Colina Police Station and the Investigative Police, with no progress reported yet.
