The Chilean government announced this Thursday the intervention of 30 municipalities of the country with a high crime rate after the third murder of a Carabineros agent in less than a month.

The provision is given in the ambit of art a series of violent episodes which led Congress to pass a challenge to the law establishing the presumption of innocence and the powers of that police force and increases prison sentences for those who try against their troops.

The Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, communicated the intervention noting that it was a plan that had been drawn up since January with the idea of ​​implementing it in May, but the president, Gabriel Boric, He asked to advance it after the new crime.

“This plan has been in the works since January and according to the decisions we made yesterday, the pilot (plan) that starts this April in Santiago will be followed in advance in the rest of the municipalities starting in May and based on the evaluations we can expand it ”, explained Tohá, who clarified that the goal is intervene “where the greatest crimes are concentrated violent”.

In this line, he explained that the plan will cover most populous municipalities and with the highest crime ratefor which the statistics on serious crimes, the traffic and the presence of weapons, the degradation of neighborhoods and the high presence of irregularities and infringements were taken into consideration.

“The intervention we will carry out is based on the evidence that shows us which factors are present in the territories where there is more presence of violent crimes”, said the minister, quoted by the local media Emol.

“Depending on the presence of these types of factors, a specific plan will be created for each of these municipalities that will have extraordinary support, based on these resources that we will allocate and which will be evaluated month by month. publicly,” he added.

How is the intervention

On the way he will intervene in those territories, the Secretary of State explained that criminal prosecution will be strengthened, “to clarify homicides and violent crimes”, and in this context joint work will be increased and accelerated with the Public Prosecutor’s Office, as well as increasing operations and control points.

In turn, government spokeswoman Camila Vallejo announced officials would hold meetings throughout the day with representatives of state powers in order to “strengthen, support and protect police institutions,” CNN reported. Chile.

“We have to act together, the state is taking sides today to address this situation,” said Vallejo, before explaining that they will be present at the meeting the internal security services, the Police, the National Intelligence Agency and the that he “is responsible for everything related to guns and the prosecution of gun control.”

Vallejo also announced that there will be “a meeting with the highest authorities of the Republic”, led by the president.

police homicide

The government’s reaction comes after the death of The corporal of the carabinieri Daniel Palmamurdered during a trial in Santiago, joining two other police killings in the past 23 days.

Palma witnessed a procedure Wednesday evening in the vicinity of the Caupolicán Theater in the center of the capital where shots had been recorded and when he approached to inspect people who were inside a car, subjects shot him in the face.

The police officer died this morning while in hospital.

Minister Tohá also sent his condolences to the “Palma” family, the Carabineros de Chile and his colleagues from the 4th Police Station of Santiago. As a country, it is time to unite to face this criminal violence: all institutions, all political sectors and all citizens,” he said on Twitter.

For his part, former president Sebastián Piñera called for “acting with urgency, determination and unity” to put an end to “this massacre”.

They are asking for a state of exception in Santiago​

After the crime, various opposition parties reiterated their calls for the government to do so declare a state of exception in the Metropolitan Regionthe administrative unit of which Santiago is head,

“The Government must take our request for a state of emergency for the Metropolitan Region seriously, it is getting out of hand. We hope that the government will leave behind its ideological blinders and reinforce the lack of Carabineros and police with the active support of the military deployed in the conflict zones,” said representative Rubén Oyarzo of the centre-right Popular Party.

In this direction, this Thursday, President Boric promulgated the Naín-Retamal law, approved by Congress on Wednesday and named in homage to two more policemen killedwhich gives greater powers to the Carabineros and increases prison sentences for those who assault members of that body.

The central point of the discussions was the questioned figure of legitimate defense, which establishes the legal presumption of innocence for the Police, Gendarmerie and Armed Forces when they intervene in an event in which their physical integrity or that of third parties is at risk.

Several lawmakers have warned they will file a lawsuit before the Constitutional Court (TC) to challenge certain articles, notably this privileged self-defense provision which has been challenged by the UN, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) and Amnesty International.

In the case of the United Nations, he warned that the concession greater freedom of action with a weapon to a police officer “does not comply with international law”, while Amnesty warned that “police abuses and impunity for these crimes could increase”, recalling the “dramatic” repression of the Carabineros against the social epidemic of 2019

The IACHR, for its part, disputed the “speed in processing the bill” stating that in its preparation “the widest possible participation should have been ensured, including, among others, people from civil society experts on the subject, academia, NGOs and other sectors of society involved in the issue”.