The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, announced that he decreed a curfew in three communes in the province of Arauco, in the Biobío region, after the murder of three police officers.
“I have instructed to decree a curfew in the communes of Cañete, Contulmo and Tirúa between 00:00 and 7:00 a.m. In addition, the police and military presence will be reinforced to our maximum capacity through joint patrols in the area. The criminals They will respond to Chile and justice,” he said on his account on the social network X.
The murder of three agents of the militarized Carabineros police that occurred in the central-southern area of the country, in the Biobío region, early this Saturday, just on the institution’s commemorative day, plunged Chilean society into a state of shock and deep shock.
Gabriel Boric, who as soon as he heard the news, gathered his crisis cabinet and publicly condemned the attack, headed to the place, more than 600 kilometers south of the capital, accompanied by a delegation of representatives of the three powers of the State, and called for political unity to face the situation.
“Now there must be neither left nor right, neither ruling party nor opposition. Chile must be whole, as a single fist, as a single force to do justice, to ensure that there is no impunity, to dismantle these gangs and to make them pay for their crimes, wherever they are,” said the president from the funeral service for the deceased and after declaring three days of national mourning.
The attack against the Public Order Control (COP) officials at the Los Álamos police station took place around 1:30 a.m. (6:30 GMT), when a group of armed men shot at the police patrol, before setting the vehicle on fire. with them inside. A sergeant and two corporals were burned to death.
“It’s about acting together as a single force to do justice,” Boric reiterated during the afternoon on his X account.
“This is not the time to weaken Carabineros”
The set of political forces that make up the Chilean Parliament, from the extreme right to the Communist Party, reacted and condemned the multiple attack, which coincided with Carabinero Day – April 27 – regarding the 97th institutional anniversary.
All commemorative events planned for the day were suspended and, spontaneously, hundreds of people demonstrated in the center of Santiago in support of the police force.
In the midst of the upheaval, the controversy was reopened about whether it is time for the general director of the Carabineros, Ricardo Yáñez, to leave his position after the Prosecutor’s Office was charged with a possible crime of omission of illegitimate pressure resulting in serious injuries and homicide. during the 2019 protests.
Although this week the Government, under pressure from part of the ruling party, had announced that the police chief would leave office before his formalization (imputation by the judge), scheduled for May 7, this Saturday several authorities questioned this possibility.
In full response to the serious attacks and in the face of the opposition’s insistence that the director remain in office, Boric pointed out that “in this we are all necessary, as is General Yañez.” Previously, the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, had assured that now “is not the time to weaken the Carabineros.”
Increase security measures in the area
After the simultaneous murder of the three police officers, unprecedented in Chile’s recent past, several political authorities demanded that the Government take extreme security measures in the area, affected by a conflict that involves indigenous peoples, the State and large landowners and forestry businessmen. that exploit lands and forests considered ancestral by indigenous communities.
La Araucanía and part of the Bio Bío region, including the sector where the attack was carried out, have been under a state of emergency since May 2022, in an attempt to control attacks by armed groups, mostly incendiary sabotage.
The governor of Biobío, Rodrigo Díaz, asked to reinstate the death penalty for those who murder police officers, while the traditional right demanded to give urgency to the pending bills on security matters.
Most of these proposals were raised in the midst of another crisis unleashed just a year ago by the murder of three other agents that occurred in the midst of their work and in less than 21 days.
For years, Chile has been going through a security crisis that has become the main concern of citizens today and that in the central-southern area of the country is combined with a conflict scenario that has not been resolved for decades.
(EFE)
