Chilean President, Gabriel Boric, warned this Tuesday of the “harmful effects” that security measures on human rights can haveand asked to legislate “with a long-term sense” in reference to the “Naín-Retamal Law” that grants greater freedom of maneuver and less responsibility to the police. More than a hundred human rights organizations demand changes from the government in the project that is being discussed in the Senate. The murder of a police sergeant during an operation in a town in Valparaíso was the latest example of the increase in violent crimes suffered by what was considered one of the security havens in Latin America.
“I call for us to legislate with a high sense of responsibilitylistening to the experts and organizations that have drawn attention to the harmful effects that the Naín-Retamal security law could have,” Boric said at a press conference from the La Moneda presidential palace. The president remarked that “justice, security and respect for human rights can go hand in hand”but “problems are generated” when one of them prevails over the others.
Do not legislate hot
“Democracy without security is meaningless. But at the same time, security without democracy, without clear rules, is a nightmare. Our commitment is with all of them, with democracy, security and human rights,” he remarked. The president asked Congress and the Senate not to respond only in the “short term,” since in recent days the processing of the security law that aims to address the growing sense of insecurity in the country, after two Carabineros agents died on duty in just two weeks.
The Chilean Congress is finalizing a controversial regulation, known as “Ley Nain-Retamal”what gives police greater powers to use their service weapon under the umbrella of “privileged self-defense”a concept that eliminates the idea of proportionality and that “presumes” that the agents will be able to use their firearms in accordance with the legal provisions, exempting them from criminal liability.
The Senate was scheduled to vote on that rule on Tuesday, which a day before came out of the Security Commission of the Upper House without incorporating the government amendments that sought to specify “privileged legitimate defense.” The decision of the senators provoked the annoyance of the ministers of justice, Luis Cordero, and of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, who assured this Tuesday that the Executive will present the rejected indications to the Senate again, to “try to persuade” the parliamentarians again .
Organizations demand change
More than 130 social organizations and human rights defenders in Chile rejected the agreement between the government and the opposition for, according to them, “attempting to impose an agenda centered on an authoritarian conception of security” and demanded that the authorities change course. “The state authorities have approved, in their first procedure, regulations that, far from going to the deep roots of insecurity, support the vocation of impunity of the police and institutions of the country,” criticized the signatory entities in their statement.
“It is unacceptable that the justification for the use of lethal force depends on the criteria of the official who uses the weapons”, added the organizations, who also recalled “the victims of state violence” from the 2019 protests who, they said, were “invisible” in the discussion. “The Carabineros crisis was generated by the institution itself, with the obsequiousness and complicity of the civil authorities and those who have benefited from a police force that, instead of offering security to society, constitutes an instrument of repression of legitimate protest and social mobilization”, lamented the associations in their statement.
The organizations closed their statement, which was also signed by 184 individuals, including the communist mayor Daniel Jaduewho disputed the presidential primaries of the left with Boric, with an alert call before the “serious setback” in terms of human rights “of a government proclaimed as progressive.”
For Rodrigo Bustos, director of Amnesty International in Chile, this law “would imply a huge setback in terms of human rights.” The Chilean police faced strong questions about their management during the social protests that broke out on October 18, 2019 due to a wide series of claims. The mobilizations resulted in some thirty deaths and thousands of wounded.
violence on the rise
Armed crime, hit men, extortion and human trafficking are the main concern of Chileans, according to the latest surveys, and they put pressure on the government and Congress to deal with a battery of laws against crime. From the ranks of the right-wing opposition they defend the strong hand. “We have had an importation of crimes that in Chile we were not used to. This accompanied by a government in which security was never its priority,” declared the opposition deputy Andrés Longtonof the Security Commission of the Chamber of Deputies.
In 2022, homicides grew by 33.4 percent compared to the previous year, according to data from the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention. This figure means the second largest variation in Latin America, just behind Ecuador, where they increased more than 80 percent. Robberies with violence and intimidation rose 63.1 percent in 2022 and automobile robberies 39.8 percent in the trans-Andean country.