Fifteen Chilean schools suspend their classes due to the risks of a drug funeral in Valparaíso

Students in front of an educational establishment during a march to commemorate International Women's Day, in a street in Valparaíso (Chile).ADRIANA THOMASA (EFE)

About fifteen schools and university establishments in the Chilean region of Valparaíso, about 120 kilometers from Santiago de Chile, have decided to suspend their classes this Tuesday due to the risks of a funeral for a drug trafficker.

These ceremonies are considered high risk by the police, because the groups occupy the neighborhoods and take over the territories, an increasingly common practice in popular areas of large cities.

They informally block the streets, launch fireworks and shots into the air and carry out caravans, among other intimidating actions.

“We cannot allow drug trafficking to decide the school calendar,” said Interior Minister Carolina Tohá.

The man who has been buried was known as

and was shot to death on Wednesday of last week in front of the Las Acacias school in Valparaíso.

He was parked in a car around two in the afternoon, during school hours, when three people approached him from another car and shot him at least 20 times.

The policemen investigate the crime.

Tohá, who has taken into her own hands the serious problem of public security that Chile is experiencing, assured that, although the Government understands that this type of measure is taken to protect students, it is urgent to "reinforce police surveillance and improve coordination so that schools are not affected.

“We cannot allow drug trafficking to decide the school calendar.

In Chile we are not going to accept that this happens”, reiterated the Minister of the Interior of the Government of Gabriel Boric.

The mayor of the commune, Jorge Sharp, from the non-government left, expressed his concern about the way in which violence has escalated in certain sectors of the city.

"We are talking about the feeling of fear and fear that exists among the residents of the upper sectors of Playa Ancha for a high-risk funeral that is going to take place in the next few hours," he said Tuesday.

Sharp appealed to the national authorities, to Minister Tohá, to the Undersecretary of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, and to the Carabineros and the police to "provide the Valparaíso region with all the capacities and resources necessary to combat head-on the increase in weapons in drug trafficking crimes.

For Sharp, "it cannot be that the residents of Valparaíso live in fear."

The Minister of Education, Marco Antonio Ávila, commented that schools and universities made "a good decision" to protect students and that what happens this day "is not unrelated to what happens in many parts of the world", where students School administrators must constantly assess the risks.

Chile is experiencing a security crisis that has resulted in an increase in organized crime, firepower and a 30% rise in the homicide rate.

Certain authorities, such as the mayor of La Florida, Rodolfo Carter, have begun to implement unprecedented measures in the country, such as the demolition of houses associated with drug trafficking to deliver a signal to the community.

Citizens widely support this type of initiative.

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