He exsubsecretario de Interior, Felipe Harboe, who as a senator joined and chaired the Security Commission, stated that “the authorities are experiencing a very difficult moment” derived from the kidnapping of the former Venezuelan military officer, Ronal Ojeda, taken by force from a home in Independencia a week ago, without anything being known about him until now.
In conversation with Radio AgricultureHarboe stated that “This is not only a problem of law, but also of coordination, management, anticipating and information. We don’t get anything out of the fact that the police constantly come to report what has already happened, people want things to not happen,” he declared.
“It is not possible that more than 10 days have passed (sic) since the disappearance of the political asylum seeker, a former Venezuelan military man, and the Government still does not have an explanation. I don’t want to say a solution, they don’t even know where the situation comes from, that speaks very badly of the information system, of intelligence. “That is very delicate,” he warned.
“It gives the impression, for Chile and abroad, that the Government does not have the capacity to know what happened or who did it. That is a matter of comment on the intelligence levels in neighboring countries. “Chile has to take care of its sovereignty,” he said.
He added that “citizen evaluation in terms of security is very bad regarding the authorities, beyond the efforts they are legitimately making. “Here the authorities have to put prejudices aside and assume that they require inter-institutional cooperation.”
Because “it is evident that, at least from the information point of view, the capabilities of the Carabineros and the PDI have not been sufficient, beyond the tremendous and laudable efforts that must be recognized. In terms of results, they have not been enough.”
“This is not a government problem, it is a state problem, the next government, whatever color it may be, is going to have to take it on. “There is no institution here that can be marginalized in order to provide adequate levels of security for the population to live freely,” he stated.
In that sense, Harboe highlighted that “the Armed Forces, in my understanding and personal opinion, should not act operationally in matters of internal security, because they are not prepared for it. But they should actively participate in logistical support at the borders, in logistical support at the technological point of view and also from the point of view of information and analysis.”
“It seems to me that today they have been wasted due to prejudices that do not seem to me to be appropriate,” said the former undersecretary.
He explained that “If Chile intends to have positive results in the fight against crime, it cannot do the same as we did in the 90s and 2000s. Because the criminal phenomenon has changed. The morphology of the crimes is completely different from those that I had to face in 2006 or 2007. Innovation is required, we cannot expect to do more of the same.”
“The general has been a very dim-witted government, if you ask yourself, what is the legacy? The truth is that I see that the country has higher levels of insecurity, it has higher levels of poverty, of inequality. We have negative economic growth, a high fiscal debt, the situation is quite bad up to the minute,” he criticized.
“There are still two years left and I hope the situation can be reversed. I am interested in the Government doing well so that Chile does well,” he concluded.
2024-02-28 21:46:54