The Government of Chile has opened the way for the leader of the Carabineros, the general director, Ricardo Yáñez, not to leave his position before next May 7, when a judicial investigation against him will be formalized by the omissive crime of illegitimate coercion and homicide during the social outbreak of October 2019. This has been suggested by President Gabriel Boric himself and his Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, after the murder this Saturday morning of three police officers in the province of Arauco, in the Biobío region, an area of south-central Chile marked by rural violence and crimes such as wood theft. Although it was the Chilean Executive itself that had determined that no senior official can remain in office after a formalization of an investigation against him – which pushed Yáñez to resign in the coming days –, the highest authorities of La Moneda They have made it clear, after the multiple crime, that the general director of the Carabineros remains in his position.
Yáñez himself had tried in the previous weeks, who, through multiple resources, unsuccessfully sought to have the formalization at least postponed and, in this way, remain in office.
“Attacking against Carabineros is attacking the entire country. In Chile there is heartbreak, sorrow, rage,” Boric said this Saturday from the municipality of Los Álamos, in the municipality of Cañete, where the crime of the three police officers took place, who were shot down with heavy-caliber weapons and then burned. inside the patrol car, where their bodies were found by firefighters. Boric assured that the State responds uniformly to crime, that there are no right or left and, in reference to the situation of the general director of Carabineros, he assured: “We are all necessary. By the way, so is General Yáñez. All the authorities present are going to work in coordination and collaboration to be able to have truth, justice and that there is no impunity,” said Boric, who announced that the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, and the Minister of Defense, Maya, will remain in the area. Fernandez.
The Government, supported by the main authorities of the Judiciary, the Chamber of Deputies, the Senate, the Prosecutor’s Office, the Armed Forces, the Investigative Police, among other institutions, reached this area of Biobío where the state of exception governs, it is That is, where the work of the police is reinforced by military work to try to stop crime. In the same appearance by Boric, his Minister of the Interior referred to the new criteria and the situation of General Yáñez. “What we need today is to all be united. We are going to find a way so that no situation weakens all the actors who have to be present and working together, starting with the Carabineros, which is the victim here. “This is not the time to weaken and move the key figures in this effort,” said Tohá, who explained that in the coming days it will be defined how to carry out this criterion defined by President Boric.
“Chile is going to continue fighting against this violence,” said Boric’s minister. Tohá said that this attack seeks to scare those who fight crime, investigate, put prisoners in jail, and issue verdicts. And she recalled that route P-72 S, where the attack was committed, is one of the red dots in the southern Macrozone that in recent times, however, had recovered some of its normality. “This is a blow to the heart of this effort,” added Tohá, who assured that “we had never seen this level of cruelty and treachery.” For this reason, she announced that support will be requested from outside Chile to persecute the culprits and she did not rule out any measure, including declaring a state of siege, as different political sectors have requested. The president, before, did not outright reject other tools, such as the call to COSENA, a consultative body, part of the political Constitution that has been in force since 1980, of which the president, the presidents of the Senate, the Chamber of Deputies are part and the Supreme Court, in addition to the commanders in chief of the Armed Forces, the general director of the Carabineros and the comptroller general of the Republic.
The attack against the three police officers, unprecedented in Chile’s recent past, occurred precisely on the 97th anniversary of the institution, which is commemorated this April 27. This was not coincidental, this was not random. Enough already. Until when?” General Yáñez asked himself in the morning. The commemorations have been suspended and spontaneous demonstrations have been held in different cities of the country in support of the uniformed police.
The murdered police officers have been identified as 1st Sergeant Carlos Cisterna Navarro (43 years old), 1st Corporal Sergio Arévalo Lobos (34) and 1st Corporal Misael Vidal Cid (30), all on night duty early this Saturday . They worked at the Fourth Control and Public Order Police Station of Los Álamos.
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