The Chilean Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalveannounced this Sunday that The government will sue those responsible for the murder of three police officers occurred early Saturday morning in the Bio Bío region, a Mapuche area in southern Chile. While she continues an intense search to find the perpetrators of the crime, the Minister of the Interior Carolina Tohá argued that it is “a type of attack that had never been seen before” in the country. The triple homicide occurred on Saturday in the town of Cañete, 500 kilometers south of Santiago, the same day that the police institution celebrated a new anniversary.
“We aspire to the highest penalties”
“The complaints that the government is going to present are going to be for homicide against Carabineros, violation of the Weapons Law and criminal organization“, accurate Monsalve, who assured that, although the Executive would like to file a complaint for the Anti-Terrorism Law, this “would not allow them to be sufficiently effective or apply the highest penalties.” According to the minister, if the evidence can be proven in court, the three reported crimes carry a qualified life sentence.
“We are aspiring to the highest penalties,” added the authority at a press point from the scene. The attack against the Public Order Control (COP) officials of the Los Álamos police station occurred when a group of armed men shot at the police patrol, before setting fire to the vehicle with them inside. A sergeant and two corporals were burned to death.
Other versions published in the press speculate that the police were ambushed, subdued, tied up and then murdered before their truck was set on fire. Four prosecutors are carrying out the investigation and for now no group has claimed responsibility for the attack. Three communes in the province of Arauco were under night curfew.
This is the worst attack against Carabineros, the country’s militarized police, in the country’s recent history, both because it was a multiple simultaneous murder and because of the way in which the agents were murdered. During Sunday’s day The bodies of the agents were delivered to their familiesafter the Legal Medical Service (SML) completed its expertise, which will be one of the key points of the investigation.
Three detainees and many doubts
Carabineros carried out several operations this Sunday in Cañete, Biobío Region, within the framework of the investigation into the attack that ended with the three uniformed officers murdered. In the midst of these procedures The police arrested three people in an area near the place where the truck was found with the bodies of the police.
It has not yet been reported whether the arrests were related to the crime. In fact, the Prosecutor’s Office told the newspaper Third that no arrest warrants were issued for this case, which is being directed by the regional prosecutor of Biobío, Marcela Cartagena. The arrested subjects were taken to a police station in Cañete to carry out a preventive identity check.
No changes in police commands
In an interview with Channel 13, the minister Carolina Tohá He assured that “this is a type of attack that had never been seen” in Chile. The unusual nature of the event is supported by “the level of violence” and the deployment of resources used in its execution, explained the minister. “They were murdered outside (the truck) and it is not known under what circumstances. It is also not known why they got out (of the vehicle),” Tohá said.
The Chilean Minister of the Interior confirmed in his position the general director of the police, Ricardo Yáñez, who must face a formalization hearing on May 7 for his responsibility in cases of human rights violations in the October 2019 protests. “At this moment there can be no changes in the command of the police,” said Tohá.
Although this same week the government, under pressure from a part of the ruling party, had announced that the police chief would leave office before his indictment, this harsh blow to the Carabineros changed the scenario. Yáñez traveled to the crime zone on Saturday and denounced that the attack “was not accidental.” “Why do they kill us? Why do they continue to attack us? If we are only trying to contribute to the peace of this country,” said the police director.
On the same Saturday the president Gabriel Boric He described the perpetrators of the triple crime as “terrorists” and expressed: “I assure Chileans that there will be no impunity. and that we will find the whereabouts of the authors of this terrible crime.” Together with Boric, in a sign of institutional unity, the commanders of the Army, Air Force and Navy, as well as parliamentarians and the president, traveled to the city of Concepción. of the Supreme Court.
A conflictive region
The regions of La Araucanía and Bio Bío have been the scene of a conflict for decades involving indigenous peoples, the State and large landowners and forestry businessmen who exploit lands and forests considered ancestral by indigenous communities. Since May 2022, the areas affected by the conflict have been under a state of emergencyin an attempt to control the attacks, mostly incendiary sabotage by armed groups.
This situation is now combined with a security crisis that the country is going through and which has caused an increase in violent crimes and organized crime. “We may be facing a specific and specific event or facing a change in the scenario and strategies of rural violence. That is something that must be clarified within the framework of the investigation,” insisted Undersecretary Monsalve.
Last week the government had celebrated the reduction by half of violent actions compared to the beginning of President Gabriel Boric’s administration, in March 2022. Also that same week, the justice system declared him guilty of “violent usurpation of property, theft and attack against authority” to Héctor Llaitul, leader of the Arauco-Malleco Coordinator (CAM), one of the groups that has claimed responsibility for arson attacks in the area.
