The delivery ceremony was attended by the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá.
After nearly seven months of bidding processes, Carabineros of the Aysén region – in the city of Coyhaique – received 17 vehicles for the police service acquired with contributions from the Regional Government, which will be distributed in six communes in the region.
The delivery took place at the Regional Stadium of this city and was attended by the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá; the Regional Presidential Delegate of Aysén, Rodrigo Araya Morales; the Regional Governor of Aysén, Andrea Macías Palma and the Zone Chief of Carabineros Aysén, General Patricio Santos Poblete, Parliamentarians, Public Ministry, Public Criminal Defender’s Office, mayors, Seremis, provincial and communal authorities, heads of services, representatives of neighborhood associations and special guests.
More investment is more security
These are 4×4 vehicles that after traveling more than 1,800 km by land and sea, arrived in the region. Of these 17 vehicles, 5 are destined for the Aysén commune, 4 for the Cisnes commune, 3 for Coyhaique, 2 for Cochrane, 2 for Chile Chico and 1 for Río Ibáñez.
«Let us remember that they are part of 35 vehicles (90% due to replacement of other mobile phones) that have already arrived and that were purchased thanks to the financial transfer of nearly 3 billion pesos from the Regional Government and that complement another 34 vehicles that were delivered by the central government from 2022 to this date. Therefore, all Carabineros barracks in the region will have new vehicles to provide better service.”
The arrival of these new cars translates into a decrease in operational response times and the arrest of those who commit crimes in flagrante delicto.
“They are high-standard vehicles with recording systems that allow the protocolized procedure to be monitored and that give security to the people who are subject to control, of professional action.”
The first ten vehicles were delivered in the month of March, to which are added these 17 units, leaving another eight, of which six are buggies and two vehicles with criminalistic capacity for ex post investigation of the occurrence of the crime.
«Therefore, we are tremendously happy and we hope that these vehicles that are going to patrol also take proper care of our police officers. They are armored vehicles, security and comfort measures are increased for those who carry out a task as difficult as the one carried out by our Institution,” said General Patricio Santos.
Two boats, 14 drones and modular systems will also be acquired soon to reinforce work on the border.
In aspirational matters, the Institution seeks in the future to have a Training School to train 150 police officers.
The Aysén Zone Chief highlighted the principle of intersectorality established by the national security policy, which gains strength every day in the region through teamwork with the various authorities.
Continuous improvement and coordination
Likewise, the General Officer indicated that this is in addition to efforts being developed in various areas, including personnel training.
«Today we have close to 90% of the human resource trained in matters of human rights, criminal prosecution, respect for victims, treatment with gender-based people and also in matters of domestic violence, who were certified in a ceremony attended by the Minister. of the Interior and Public Security,” he indicated.
At the same time, this work is complemented by the local efforts developed by the municipalities, since there are vehicles acquired by the central government through the Undersecretary of Crime Prevention for mixed patrols within the framework of the OS-14 agreement with Carabineros.
In short, it allows us to work with them on incivilities or on issues that are not police emergencies, notifications, preventive patrols, traffic inspections, among other matters.
Criminal reality
After Magallanes, Aysén is the second safest region in the country considering the decrease in crimes with greater social connotation in the last 10 to 15 years with victimization standards that do not exceed 8%.
“Our main function is security and being where people demand us,” said General Santos.
The main crime that affects the region is domestic violence, which, added to the crime of injuries, damages and threats, quadruples the crimes of robbery.
Thefts in the region are 1.3 daily. In the last ten years, the region has not exceeded 500 robbery crimes. In terms of rate, less than one person in every hundred -in the year- are victims of robbery.
“Of the robberies that occur, 17% occur in established businesses, about 60% occur on public roads and the remaining 20% occur in homes,” he indicated.
However, “in the region all these crimes face tremendous persecution. The region is the one that has the highest efficiency in terms of criminal prosecution (…). We have the highest standards of detention for flagrante delicto, that is, in about a quarter of the crimes that occur in the region, we manage to detain people in flagrante delicto,” highlighted Zone Chief Aysén.
General Santos highlighted “the coordinated work of all the agencies, the PDI with all its capabilities in the region and the Public Ministry, we are capable of detaining people and following processes so that these crimes – which are the most serious – do not remain unpunished,” he highlighted.
He also thanked the efforts of the regional government and the central government, allowing interests to be directed towards what the community demands and working together to generate security conditions for the community.
Collaborative spirit
For her part, the Regional Governor of Aysén, Andrea Macías Palma, indicated that we must not only act reactively, but that progress in prevention is required.
He added that, within a short time, Carabineros will have a boat on Lake General Carrera, to carry out lake patrols through a means that not only sees security issues, but also transports medicines to people from remote places like El Avellano. and Puerto Cristal.
He added that politics must have a territorial focus and advancing decentralization is essential – as is the strengthening of collaborative work – to promote actions that allow people to change their lives.
Comprehensive attention to problems
For the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Carolina Tohá, this strategy will mean leaving the entire Carabineros vehicle fleet in force 100%, which, at the time the current administration took office, was 50% obsolete, that is, the “Half of the vehicles were out of their useful life,” he indicated.
At the same time, he pointed out that “at the time the Government took office, 65% of the country’s municipalities had security vehicles, today that figure reaches 98%,” while, in terms of mixed patrols, there are agreements with 9 of the 10 municipalities, allowing for more comprehensive attention to problems.
«There are many crimes that are not more massive than before, but they are more violent and when they are more violent they generate more fear, more damage and have a much greater capacity to contaminate (…) in this region we have great concern about arriving on time, for preparing ourselves, for anticipating (…)”, said the authority, who highlighted the collaborative spirit, pointing out that it is the most important resource and the one that can give the most results.
