SANTIAGO (AP) — The murder of three military police officers in southern Chile has shocked the country and containing the violence has become the number one priority.
Congress has dedicated this week exclusively to discussing policies to strengthen security, with an agenda focused on bills on intelligence and antiterrorism as well as the discussion of new rules for the use of force by the army and security forces. .
These are the keys to the insecurity crisis that the country is experiencing:
CRIME AND ADVANCES IN INVESTIGATION
The bodies of the three police officers were found burned on Saturday inside a vehicle that was carrying out routine patrols in the southern city of Cañete. The uniformed men died from gunshot wounds after an ambush.
The Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, stated that “there are clues and investigative lines” about the attack, while Attorney General Ángel Valencia announced the creation of a team to find out the circumstances of the crime.
So far no one has claimed responsibility for the attack nor have the authorities pointed out possible perpetrators. Investigators do not rule out, however, that the attack was carried out by organized crime gangs, which are expanding strongly throughout the country, or radical Mapuche groups in retaliation for the recent conviction of an indigenous leader. What is known is that the crime was premeditated and had multiple perpetrators.
SOUTHERN CHILE, SCENE OF HISTORICAL CONFLICTS
The ambush took place in the so-called Southern Macrozone of Chile, a region in a state of emergency since 2022. Its inhabitants have been affected by the confrontation between the Mapuches, groups of landowners and wood traffickers that have resulted in arson attacks against churches and homes, armed attacks against drivers and the death of both Mapuches, farmers and police. The entry of organized crime into the region, the poorest in the country, has further intensified conflicts and produced criminal sophistication.
Although episodes of violence are common, crimes with the characteristics of the one perpetrated against the police had never before been recorded, where “apparently there would be planning to confront members of the force and kill them, not necessarily in a situation of a specific conflict.” ”, indicated political scientist Lucía Dammert.
Both Chilean authorities and experts consulted by The Associated Press agreed that the murder of the three uniformed officers represents an unprecedented event with unprecedented brutality. President Gabriel Boric stated that the homicide has “terrorist connotations,” while Minister Tohá recognized the “violence and barbarism” of the case.
For Dammert, the murder represents a turning point in the insecurity crisis in the country and it is urgent that the political debate on draft security laws be resumed.
“This situation generated a turning point, not only in the seriousness of the phenomenon, but also in the political will to advance in several areas that were quite postponed,” he explained.
WHAT IS DEBATED IN THE CONGRESS
Congress has paralyzed its agenda to exclusively debate two public security projects, including the intelligence law, which seeks to modernize the current obsolete regulations and plans to expand the National Intelligence System, and a new Anti-Terrorist law approved in record time by the Senate. which will now be debated by the deputies. Among other points, the law enables the use of “special investigation techniques” in the fight against organized crime, sanctions individual terrorist crimes and punishes those who recruit minors for terrorist associations.
In addition, on Friday the lower house urgently discussed, in a special session, the Rules on the Use of Force – known as RUF – which establish standards on the use of force for the police and the Armed Forces. Also the creation of a Ministry of Security independent of the Ministry of the Interior and with greater autonomy and powers with the aim of improving institutional control of the police.
Despite the consensus on the need to promote public security, some of the projects—such as the RUF—face resistance from some sectors due to concerns that they could lead to human rights violations.
“What is happening in Chile is that public opinion and the opposition are pushing for a series of laws to be approved urgently, but the problem is that in these urgent situations big mistakes can be made,” assessed Jorge Araya Moyra, expert in Public Security and researcher at the University of Santiago de Chile.
THE BREEDING GROUND FOR CRIMINALITY
Considered one of the safest and most stable countries in Latin America, Chile has seen an exponential increase in crime and violent crimes in the last five years influenced by the increase in drug and weapons trafficking, a massive wave of undocumented immigrants, especially from countries such as Colombia, Venezuela and Haiti, and the entry of organized crime.
These factors produced a social reconfiguration that introduced the country “into a new dynamic, very complex, very difficult to address and for which Chile was not prepared,” Araya stated.
“The gangs entered the extreme north of Chile, developed there and have rapidly expanded to other parts of the center and south. And this is an extremely new phenomenon, of a type of criminal with many weapons, with very cruel murders and in a manner that we did not know in Chile,” he noted.
Amid the entry of these groups, among which Los Gallegos stands out – an arm of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua that operates in the north of the country – official official figures show that homicides in Chile rose 40% in the last six years .
POLITICAL AND SOCIAL IMPACT
The insecurity crisis has had an impact beyond the political arena and could reignite the social unrest that marked the social outbreak of 2019 and 2020, a movement organized by students that led tens of thousands of people to occupy the streets of Santiago and other parts of Chile against the increase in public transport fares, which culminated in a wave of violent riots throughout the country.
The most immediate of them has been the permanence in office of the general director of Carabineros, Ricardo Yañez, accused of abuse of force during the social outbreak.
Yañez planned to resign on Friday and had a hearing to formalize charges in court next Tuesday. However, after the weekend attack the government announced that he would remain in office while the court hearing has been postponed until October.
Although his continuity in office was received positively by a large part of the political and citizen sectors, there have been protests demanding his resignation.
Another immediate consequence of the attack was the rise in the approval level of the police, which shot up to 84% and represents a historical maximum for an institution that has seen its popularity plummet in 2019 and 2020 due to its actions during the demonstrations. students, according to a survey by the Cadem firm.
