According to authorities, thieves robbed the home of Chilean Defense Minister Maia Fernandez, beating her son and threatening her husband.

Fernandez, the granddaughter of the late socialist leader Salvador Allende, was not at home when thieves broke into the Nunoa neighborhood in Santiago.

The region’s police chief, General Jean Camus, said “there was a robbery at the home of the minister of defense,” adding that “unidentified persons stole money and a car.”

On the same night, a national police sergeant who worked as a bodyguard for the president was robbed and shot dead when a group of men approached him while he was sitting in an official car, at a time when Chile is experiencing “the worst period in terms of security since the restoration of democracy where the crime rate has skyrocketed.

The attack took place in the San Miguel area in the south of Santiago, when the man was returning to the presidential palace. Police said the assailants drove him to a town north of Santiago, shot him and left him on the street before fleeing in a car.

The Chilean authorities have blamed the escalating chaos on organized crime groups and have vowed to increase cooperation between military police officers and their civilian counterparts.