This Saturday, in Santiago, the first “regional public security summit” was held, convened by the governor of the Metropolitan Region, Claudio Orrego, whose purpose is to define priority objectives for the RM and announce public policy initiatives regarding citizen security.
“Either we all ally ourselves or the criminals are simply going to have the last word,” Orrego warned, in the context of the instance that was organized in conjunction with the Carabineros; the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention; the Chilean Association of Municipalities, with the president of the Security Commission, Mayor Maximiliano Ríos; public security directors of municipalities in the region; and various neighborhood associations of the capital.
In relation to what Orrego assures, it is the first priority of the citizens of the RM, which is security, the governor said “that it is important that the central authorities understand that they do not have too many hands, they do not have hands, and that the governments we are here to help, not only with resources, we are already investing in the case of Santiago (…) but we are also articulating civil society”.
Asked about meetings with President Gabriel Boric regarding the matter, Orrego indicated that “we had a meeting in Antofagasta with all the regional governments, and we already have the green light in the sense that the Government is going to carry out a legal reform to officially recognize what We are already doing it. All the regional governments are investing in security more than four times what the Undersecretary for Crime Prevention invests. In other words, we are already doing the trick, what is missing is legal recognition, having a division and a policy regional”.
In this regard, the metropolitan governor assured that the neighbors beg to give a sense of urgency to this problem, since he assures that they are tired of living locked up. In this sense, he stated that “what we want to do as RM is literally to put our wallets where we put our mouths (…) The most important thing for us is to do a job of organizing civil society. We don’t go to crime to win each one fighting for his side. Either we allies with each other or simply the criminals are going to have the last word, and that is what we do not want”.
For his part, the mayor of Lo Prado and president of the Security Commission of the Chilean Association of Municipalities, Maximiliano Ríos, said that “the ACHM, together with its mayors, have a lot to say, because we are the first door to entrance to the State, and the neighbors know it, therefore we want this national agreement that is being carried out, to have the voice of the municipalities, which is ultimately the voice of the citizenry”.
