SANTIAGO (AP) — The funerals of the three police officers murdered last weekend in southern Chile brought together hundreds of people on Tuesday in a massive farewell to the agents in three different locations, after an unprecedented crime that shocked the country.
The bodies of Sergeant Carlos Cisterna and Corporals Sergio Arévalo and Misael Vidal, murdered early Saturday morning on a routine patrol in the southern city of Cañete, were laid to rest and buried in different locations in the Bíobío region.
The weekend attack, whose responsibility has not been claimed by any group nor have the authorities pointed out possible perpetrators so far, occurred in the so-called southern macrozone of Chile, a region in a state of emergency since 2022 and marked by conflicts. between organized crime, landowners, the Mapuches and the police.
The Chilean president, Gabriel Boric, attended the ceremonies, as well as the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, the Minister of Defense, Maya Fernández, and the general director of the Carabineros, Ricardo Yáñez.
The triple homicide, with characteristics unprecedented until then, has left Chile in mourning and its clarification has become the priority of both the Government and Congress, which has paralyzed its routine agenda this week to exclusively debate two public security projects.
Although the authorities have not revealed details of the investigation, Minister Tohá has assured that “there are clues and lines of investigation” into the triple homicide.
For his part, Boric reiterated on Tuesday that his government will continue “working tirelessly until the culprits are found” so that they “respond with the full weight of the law before justice and Chilean society.”
In recent years, the population of that macrozone in southern Chile has been hit by various arson attacks against churches, burning of homes and armed attacks in the countryside, many of which resulted in the death of both Mapuches, farmers and police. .
