In the presence of widows and relatives of police victims of crime, as well as groups of relatives of detained-disappeared, the Senate Chamber began the discussion of the Naín-Retamal Law. This, after the general approval of the instance by the Security Commission of the Corporation.
In the midst of a tense environment, Senator Fabiola Campillai (IND), was the first parliamentarian to intervene against the initiative, stood up to address the Upper House and called the project an “aberration.” In addition, she announced that if the initiative is approved, she will request the presidential veto, since it offers impunity to the Carabineros.
“I stand up to speak because, apparently, it is not enough for this Senate to have a colleague, who was shot in the face by a police officer with a weapon that was supposedly a non-lethal weapon and that could have been lethal to because I was between life and death,” Campillai said.
“Today, that police officer, thank God and justice, is in prison, serving twelve years in prison. Does this law, ‘easy trigger’, say that there can be retroactive impunity? In other words, that the case will be able to be reviewed by the person who shot me. What do we say to the people who lost family,” added the parliamentarian.
In addition to the above, the senator asserted that “this project came out worse than the Security Commission, it is an aberration as it is today. Not even the UN high commissioner was heard. It is unpresentable and I say it standing up, because I want to see who votes in favor of this project, because this project is not going to prevent more people from dying.
At the end of her speech, it was time for the word of the former member of the Republican Party, Senator Carmen Gloria Aravena (IND), who summoned Campillai and assured that she will vote in favor since “we are in a democracy, not in a dictatorship”. .
“Contrary to what my colleague, Senator Campillai, stated, this law is by no means an easy trigger, it is not a privilege either, rather it is a right, mainly linked to privileged legitimate defense, which is not a privilege but is clearly a need to return to Carabineros, police and Armed Forces, the legitimate defense against a situation in which they did not ask for it, fulfilling their duties and today they are many times persecuted and condemned to lose their careers because they had to defend themselves or defend another “, he indicated.
“This bill that increases penalties for crimes committed against authorities in the exercise of the protection of public order was expected a long time ago. I know that we are divided on this, and I have no problem telling Senator Campillai that yes, I am going to vote in favor of this project and I regret that it threatens those of us who vote for or against it,” added Aravena.
Along the same lines, the independent senator assured that “we are in a democracy, not a dictatorship. And we have the right to defend our principles, values and mainly to defend a region like La Araucanía, which has experienced more than 7,000 terrorist attacks and in many of They have been victims of police officers, Mapuche people and civilians”.
The parliamentarians continued with the debate on the initiative when it was the turn of Senator Iván Moreira (UDI) to speak, who also responded to Campillai and affirmed that his statements “give us the necessary strength to vote” for the Naín-Retamal Law.
“This is a political chamber, it is not a chamber of experts. When I previously heard a senator (Campillai) use the term ‘aberration’, what a pity, and she threatened us about how we are going to vote. I can tell you that we gives the necessary strength to vote with greater conviction for this project”.
It was at that moment when the attendees in the public began to shout different slogans, for which Moreira replied that “when we hear these screams we know perfectly well that it is the hatred of 50 years ago, and in these last 30 years those who speak the most of democracy are precisely a resentful left with hate speech”.
