After 3:00 p.m. this Monday, the Senate Public Safety Commission continued with the private discussion of the so-called Naín-Retamal Law. This law seeks, among other things, to increase the penalties for those who commit crimes against police and gendarmerie officials. The day was marked by the controversial departure of the ministers of La Moneda.
During the discussion, one of the key indications of the Executive was addressed, which sought to eliminate one of the most controversial articles of the regulations. This article grants a presumption of the justified use of service weapons by uniformed police officers, better known as “privileged legitimate defense.”
However, the Government’s indication was rejected by 3 votes against and 2 in favor. This prompted the Ministers of the Interior, Justice and Segpres, Carolina Tohá, Luis Cordero and Macarena Lobos (s), to announce that they would withdraw from the instance as the co-legislative role of the Executive was “totally impossible”.
“President, the ministers present are going to retire. We believe that what we came to allege to this commission has been rejected out of hand. What we had to propose, regarding the enforcement of the Code of Military Justice, no longer makes sense, because everything that the commission is legislating is to deepen the Penal Code and, consequently, our role as co-legislator has been totally disabled,” said Minister Carolina Tohá.
“Consequently, it does not make sense for us to remain. This is a proper debate between parliamentarians and their indications. We want to regret it, because we believe that a solution had been proposed that accommodated the concerns of parliamentarians and that led to a solution that, from from the point of view of the concerns of the police, it was much more substantive,” added the Secretary of State.
After the decision of the ministers of State, the senator of the party in formation Democrats, Matías Walker, stated that “this is unusual in the 13 years that I have been in Congress, that the government, in full process, lost a vote and stopped and left.” “We hope that the government reforms the indications for tomorrow,” he added.
Regarding privileged legitimate defense, the Government had presented a more attenuated wording, restricting the use of weapons only in cases of crimes against the life of officials or that seriously threaten their integrity, and not in the three scenarios proposed by the project dispatched from the Chamber of Deputies (when acting in self-defense, in defense of third parties or to prevent a crime).
In this sense, the indication presented by the Executive indicated that “it will be understood that there was a rational need in their use (service weapons) if it is done to prevent or try to prevent the consummation of crimes that threaten their life or seriously against their integrity physical”.
After the amendment was rejected, the Minister of the Interior regretted that “sometimes one has the impression that the idea of making a political point weighs more than generating a good law and I think it is unfortunate that this happens in this matter” .
“But that will be part of the political debate, it is no longer part of the commission’s debate, so there is no point in delving into the point here any longer,” minister Tohá said.
