The Minister of the Interior, Izkia Siches, participated in the special session of the Chamber of Deputies for the South Macrozone.
The meeting was requested by opposition parliamentarians to address “the position and strategy of the Government in the face of criminal prosecution and the execution of sentences by the protagonists of serious acts of violence and criminality that have affected the South Macrozone, as well as other points from the country”.
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Siches intervention
In this scenario, the Secretary of State explained the guidelines that the Government of the President has, Gabriel Boricin the matter, in addition to reporting the measures that will be established in the area.
“As a government and ministry, we are interested in recovering tranquility and good living for our entire country, for all the inhabitants, without exclusions,” Siches began.
“We are deeply concerned about the escalation of violence that has been experienced in recent years in the regions of Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos and Los Lagos. We do not want more victims, Mapuche and non-Mapuche, we do not want more death, we do not want more violence no fear,” he said.
He also explained that “our diagnosis is that despite the efforts of the different governments, the acts of violence have not decreased, but have increased impressively. We went from 432 violent events in 2017 to 1,731 in 2021.”
With these numbers, the head of the Interior pointed out that “either we now face the causes or effects of this violence or we can enter a spiral that is increasingly difficult to control and that will have enormous costs, not only economic, but also in lives.”
“Considering these elements, the President has stated that the solution to this conflict will not be exclusively judicial or military, it is profoundly political. The opposite only prolongs this situation and, as has been shown, fosters an escalation of violence that I think we all want to stop,” he added.
For the chief of staff “the conflict between the State of Chile and the Mapuche people is centuries old and has historical and political roots, there is an open wound that we must begin to heal. Doing so is a complex task. And in this we have to be clear and Franks: there are no possible shortcuts. We need an effort from the entire State, agreements from all the political forces to move forward on a path to a solution”.
“What have we thought to advance in the solutions? We have been looking at the international experiences that have been successful: New Zealand, Canada, Colombia, countries that are ahead of us and that have managed to obtain favorable results. And that have managed to stop this spiral of violence that can deepen in our country,” he stressed.
The minister again detailed the five axes -just as she did in the Senate- that the Government has planned to address the problems that affect the south of the country: The creation of a Truth Commission and historical clarification in an intercultural conflict; the implementation of parliaments and territorial dialogues; improve the delivery of land and, therefore, the activation of the Conadi; the activation of the State through interministerial work towards the territory; the development of security measures.
Support to the police
After explaining the measures that the Government has to address the problems that afflict the south of the country, Siches announced how they will support the police in the area.
It should be remembered that the State of Exception that was implemented from October of last year until March 26, 2022 no longer applies.
“We have reinforced the police presence and our government has taken charge of providing the necessary equipment so that the police can carry out their functions in a better way. We have increased the number of armored vehicles, going from 4 to 19 teams. Along the same lines, the government has already has approved, at the request of the Carabineros, the incorporation of 34 new armored vans to improve preventive work,” the minister said.
“A billion pesos will be made available to buy longer-range drones that facilitate police action and prevent the occurrence of violent events,” he added.
Under this scenario, Siches expressed that “in order to have better information that allows us to provide conflict scenarios that lead to sources of violence, I have instructed the teams of the Ministry of the Interior to start working on what will be a new intelligence system of the State”.
Complaints against acts of violence
Regarding the acts of violence that afflict the south, the Secretary of State spoke about the persecution of those responsible, indicating that “the Ministry of the Interior is authorized to intervene criminally, by filing a complaint when there is an act constituting a crime that alters public order and affects public safety, and other additional legal requirements must be met”.
“In 2021 there were 1,218,792 criminal cases filed in the different prosecution offices of the Public Ministry, while the Legal Division of the Ministry of the Interior presented 37 complaints during the same year,” he added.
In this scenario, he added that “the Ministry of the Interior will fulfill this task under considerations of efficiency and rationality of the criminal prosecution policy. Our approach is to intervene with special emphasis on the crimes of organized crime, drug trafficking, crimes contemplated in the law of weapons, hate and gender crimes, human trafficking, migrant smuggling and in those crimes that seriously threaten or compromise the life and physical integrity of people.
In addition, he criticized the Anti-Terrorism Law: “The invocation of exceptional laws, such as the Anti-Terrorism Law, has shown that there is a complete disconnection between the classification of these facts and the legal classification that the courts make regarding them. The higher courts, for As a general rule, they exclude the terrorist nature of the crime, notwithstanding that this is invoked by the plaintiffs,” he said.
“In the same way, it is counterproductive for a rational and proportionate criminal prosecution to invoke the State Security Law in the event that common crimes are committed, specifically defined by the legislator without there being an additional effect on public order or State security” , hill.
