SANTIAGO, Chile.- Today in Chile There is talk of rules for the use of force, of police powers and even of death penalty. These are the consequences of the murder of three police officers that occurred a week ago in the south of the country.
This is a triple homicide that has not yet shed light on its perpetrators, and that accelerated the debate around security, the great issue that monopolizes the agenda and that the government of Gabriel Boric suffocated by the situation.
After a marathon and tense debate in the Chamber of Deputies, on Friday two relevant regulations were sent to the Senate: the bill that conceives a new Ministry of Public Security and he who believes the Rules of the Use of Force (RUF).
The RUF project, precisely, It was approved unanimously. However, the debate focused on the admissibility of the rule that sought to establish that uniformed officers charged with crimes committed in the exercise of their duties, were tried by military courts.
The provision, proposed by the right, was rejected by 72 votes in favor, 71 against and one abstention due to inadmissibility.
“Being a judge and party in an institution, in the event that an official of this institution is involved, is not the democratic ideal that we have to build, it would be a setback and therefore, it is good that the Chamber has rejected it as inadmissible,” The government spokesperson said this Saturday, Camila Vallejo, while the deputy of the opposition Republican Party, Luis Sánchez, criticized La Moneda.
“They say they defend the police, but they are the first to defend a judicial system that is imprisoning them without further evidencechasing them as if they were criminals (…) Justice is not working for the military. There are countless cases of persecution against our uniformed officers and it is for this reason that trust in judges is already lost,” he noted.
Another controversial point was the principle of proportionality, which was rejected, and which referred to the fact that the level of force used by the police or armed forces should be determined according to the degree of resistance or aggression. The government (with a minority in both Chambers) announced that it will try to reinstate this norm, that “it is a principle that must be in any legal system” and that “it is part of the standards that should be protected.”
Added to this was the approval of a renewed indication that establishes the “prohibition of torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment” by the personnel of the Armed Forces and the police, which meant a kind of triumph for the ruling party.
Although the latest report from the Ministry of the Interior indicates that there was a decrease in the number of homicides between 2022 and 2023, the same week the 2023 Bicentennial Survey (UC) He highlighted the population’s concern regarding insecurity and the perception of violence. In fact, 73% assured that it should be given maximum importance because “it threatens to destroy the institutional order.”
Pending issues
“Since 2022 the government has made decisions on the issue of security. The budget was increased historically; measures were established for border control; Just over 50 laws have been approved that create new crimes and aggravate penalties. Plans have also been established to place more police on the streets. However, there are things pending in Congress, such as the creation of a Ministry of Security and the reform of the intelligence law, among other critical aspects,” Claudio Fuentes, an academic at the School of Political Science of the University, told LA NACION. Diego Portales.
“It is plausible that more powers be given to the police and the Armed Forces be included in internal public security roles more explicitly. The latter because there is a favorable climate of public opinion and because also the right and some center groups could achieve the majority to approve it in Congress,” he added.
“Social consequences? Policies to increase police powers could eventually generate some reaction. But as happens in all known cases, the social reaction occurs not when a new law is approved but when specific abuses are committed,” he concluded.
This context, precisely, is what has Boric’s government located in a labyrinth. “What this situation and this regrettable fact of the murder of the three police officers most demonstrate is that the government’s original agendawhich was very focused on issues of rights, gender, or police reform, “It will be truncated by the more emergency agenda linked to these cases,” said Gonzalo Álvarez, associate professor of the Department of Social Sciences at the University of Tarapacá.
“So, in that sense, more than a particular reform or a change in the police order, A series of policies will be implemented that will try to give a feeling of greater security. And in the surveys, people from different political and social sectors are for a majority agenda in favor of greater security and tougher policies in this regard,” added the also political scientist and Doctor in Latin American Studies.
In the midst of the country’s commotion, more controversial proposals emerged such as reinstating the death penalty, which was mentioned by the regional governor of Biobío, Rodrigo Díaz.
“I hope that the government sends a bill to Parliament and that it is accepted by parliamentarians to, for example, reinstate the death penalty for those who murder police officers or that the Public Criminal Defender’s Office never defends people who murder police officers,” said Díaz, a former activist of the Christian Democratic Party (PDC).
The idea was also picked up by the Republican Party representative, Johannes Kaiser, who announced through his
The initiative was even addressed by the governor of Valparaíso, Rodrigo Mundaca. “When I say combat it (crime) with the utmost rigor, I believe that there are discussions that are pending and that no one wants to establish, for example, the discussion around the death penalty,” the official leader assured, which earned him criticism from the left itself.
The motion, in any case, has already been rejected by the national prosecutor Ángel Valencia, who stated that it was not possible since it was repealed in 2001. “Legally it is unfeasible, because in Chile it has already been abolished, we could not replace it in the civil sphere. Replacing it has no legal basis,” he said.