Once again martyrs must be buried

“Thanks to those who keep awake. You are, without knowing it, the guardians of our dreams and the conscience of the city.”. Gabriela Mistral.

Along with the feeling of rage and helplessness that I experienced upon learning of the vile murder perpetrated on three police officers in the southern part of the country, these beautiful words came to my mind that our distinguished Nobel Prize winner in Literature stamped in a guard book of one of the so many barracks that Carabineros has deployed in our long geography. Putting Gabriela's beautiful words in another way, we can say that the Carabineros of Chile are one of the fundamental pillars of the democratic republic that is our country; they, by constitutional mandate, are supporters of the prevailing rule of law. Attacking the Carabineros is attacking democracy and the rule of law, those who attack the institution of the green uniform and the crossed carabiners aim to undermine democracy and the rule of law. But the attack on this institution is not necessarily by shooting or burning its members alive, as were First Sergeant Carlos José Cisterna Navarro (RIP), First Corporal Sergio Antonio Arévalo Lobo (RIP) and First Corporal Misael Magdiel Vidal Cid (RIP). Carabineros de Chile has also been the object of a systematic attack by the political sectors that govern Chile today. Of course, being a fundamental pillar of the republican State that is Chile, those who came with a refounding objective that they expressed in the constitutional proposal of 2022; They saw in Carabineros a primary objective to beat. Let's see.

During the events of systematic violence, clearly planned, coordinated and of course financed, violence unleashed on Chile starting on October 18, 2019; Carabineros was the object of a communication campaign unleashed by those who promoted and defended the blockade of streets, avenues and interregional routes, massive looting and attacks of all kinds, including arson attacks, on public and private property. Just as an example, it is good to remember the rumor that was created and that had important party figures of the current government as a sounding board, such as the alleged torture center that Carabineros had installed in the Baquedano Station of the Santiago metro. The communist deputy Carmen Hertz pointed out in this regard in a session of the Chamber of Deputies on October 23, 2019: “The National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) confirmed that a part of the Baquedano metro station is being used as an illegal detention center, for beatings and torture of detainees. That is very serious”. On the other hand, Beatriz Sánchez, who was a candidate for president of the republic and today serves as ambassador in Mexico, published on her Twitter “INDH denounces torture, yes, torture at the Baquedano Station. Simply unacceptable. Interior Minister @andreschadwickp must resign today”. Both policies attributed this version of the events to the National Institute of Human Rights, however the director of the INDH at the time, Sergio Micco, argued that his institution had not confirmed anything and that he was waiting for the Public Ministry's investigation. This investigation resulted in the absolute falsehood of the rumor that accused Carabineros of having a torture center in the indicated metro station. To date, neither the deputy nor the ambassador in Mexico have apologized to the Carabineros of Chile for the slander of which they were part in an obvious attack on the police institution. Something similar happened with a young police officer who was accused of having pushed a political activist from a bridge into the Mapocho River in Santiago. The police officer in question was separated from his institution, he was imprisoned for five months and the investigation has shown that the events did not occur as initially published. It is also worth noting that due to the actions of the police during the last months of 2019 and the first months of 2020 that faced the unleashed violence and the breakdown of the rule of law in Chile, its current Director General, General Ricardo Yáñez, will soon be put on trial. under the accusation of “omission”. A long list of accusations about Carabineros could be mentioned, but it is not the objective of this column to list them all.

Yes, I think it is necessary to reflect on the so-called proportional use of force, which is still being debated in Congress and for a long time now, one of whose latest indications is aimed at using force by the Carabineros and the Armed Forces. , institutions that “They must consider specifications for a differentiated use of force in cases where there is the presence of children or adolescents, women, sexual diversity, people with disabilities, migrants, indigenous people or older adults.”. As is well. And meanwhile, they continue to murder police officers. An armed adolescent, an armed woman, an armed migrant, an armed indigenous person or an armed elderly person with terrorist or criminal intentions has the same degree of danger as a man over 18 years of age and under 70 years of age with the same intentions. But, the government is concerned about protecting certain criminals, otherwise it would not raise these indications.

The Minister of the Interior, Mrs. Carolina Tohá coined during the year 2023; In the framework of the debate on these standards, the concept of “easy trigger”, seeking to exemplify the spirit of the government in this matter of the rational or proportional use of force by the Carabineros and Armed Forces based on internal order. That is, these forces do not have all the powers to use their service weapons. Apparently, evaluating the situation at hand until the last moment. In this context, it seems to be clear that in the events that ended with three police officers burned alive there was no “easy trigger”, because if there had been, there would have been dead terrorists and not three burnt police officers. We must ask Minister Tohá about this, if in her imagination and supreme objective of the proportional or rational use of force, these results are considered a success, I am referring to the three police officers killed in Cañete. The question is worth it because we have to consider the other possible outcome of the events. The police shooting kill two or three terrorists. What would we be witnessing at this moment? The three police separated from the institution and imprisoned to subject them to trial. That is the reality shown by many events that have been experienced. But the drama ended as we all know, three police officers burned. Is this the cost that Chile must pay in order to achieve the supreme objective of Minister Tohá and the government? That is to say, either the police lose “the catch” and go to jail or they lose their lives. These are the two options that are being given to the uniformed police. In this way, it will be very difficult for Carabineros to fulfill its legal mandate, which is to maintain the rule of law, clearly violated in the southern macro zone.

The families of the three burned Carabineros, the Carabineros de Chile institution and all Chileans, we deserve this clarification from Minister Tohá, without euphemisms, without rambling, very clear, didactic and pedagogical, please Mrs. Tohá, so that everyone we can understand.