The security crisis in Chile gives no respite to Boric: mayors of different stripes ask for soldiers against crime

Precisely in the week that the Government of Gabriel Boric commemorates the middle of its mandate, on Monday the 11th just past, the security crisis that affects Chile has taken over the public agenda of the South American country, with the request of mayors of different political stripes to use the military to control crime.

The first stone has been cast, precisely, by an official man.

And not just anyone: one of the highest-rated members of the Frente Amplio, the mayor of the popular Maipú – in the western area of ​​Santiago de Chile –, Tomás Vodanovic.

On Tuesday, the 33-year-old leader met in La Moneda with the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, to address public security issues, because in his commune the issue is overwhelming: it was in his territories where he met on Friday, March 1 the body of the former Venezuelan dissident military man, Ronald Ojeda, buried under cement in a dangerous informal neighborhood, for example.

After the meeting with Tohá, Vodanovic offered a press conference of about 30 minutes and lit up the field in Chilean politics with his requests and above all one: deploy the Armed Forces in urban areas.

There are at least a couple of important elements to analyze this episode that stirs local news this week.

First of all, on October 27, the municipal elections will be held in Chile and the race is launched.

Mayors from all sectors are beginning to deploy their artillery and especially in an area that is fundamental for people: public safety.

It is the context in which Vodanovic – who wants to be re-elected – makes his public request to La Moneda.

A second factor: the call to the Government of the mayor of Maipú has not been the first.

Mayors from different political sectors have requested the intervention of the Armed Forces and the constitutional state of exception, although last year it was a measure requested mainly by the opposition, although not exclusive.

Not for the military to replace the police, but for them to collaborate with the protection of critical infrastructure, armored vehicles, helicopters, drones and the deployment of intelligence, as explained by the governor of the Metropolitan Region, Claudio Orrego.

But on this occasion the debate is especially heated not only because the petition is led by one of the leading figures of the Frente Amplio – Boric's coalition that is currently becoming a single party – but also because it comes in a week in which the Government has tried to spread the story that Chile is better than two years ago when he assumed power, in March 2022. This is what the president himself said on Sunday in an interview with EL PAÍS and what his main ministers have repeated in the mid-2000s. the leftist Administration.

Vodanovic, then, has left the ball in the court for the opposition to believe that "despite the fact that the president has said that we are better than two years ago, the situation is so serious that a mayor this time from the Government asks publicly military in the streets,” as the mayor of Providencia, Evelyn Matthei, assured this Wednesday, the strong card of the traditional right for the 2025 presidential elections.

Evelyn Matthei, March 6.CEP

The president: “I am not closing myself”

Boric insisted after Matthei's words: “I don't have time to argue with mayors who are constantly looking for controversy.

What we have pointed out as a Government is that, in general terms, with respect to how we receive the country, Chile is better,” he assured.

The president did not rule out any measures.

The use of the military in urban areas, he assured, “requires a discussion.

Also legal modifications.

I am not in any way closed to being able to have these tools available, for example, through the Critical Infrastructure law, something that has to be discussed in Congress,” said Boric.

"For example, a constitutional reform that enables us to do it by decree and that does not have to go through a long discussion in Congress, to a decree that is transitory, like what we did on the borders in the northern zone."

La Moneda has insisted on its path: that Parliament approve the Rules of Use of Force (RUF) and Critical Infrastructure laws that, in the Government's opinion, would allow for military personnel where police action must be reinforced. , but with clear regulations that allow them to fulfill the functions contemplated in the legislation.

This was what spokesperson Camila Vallejo explained this Wednesday, who, in any case, asked not to think that taking the military out onto the streets is a silver bullet.

“The problem we have had in recent years is believing that a single measure is the solution to the problems and that is not the case,” said the minister.

But there is a third fundamental element to understand the controversy: the Armed Forces view with a certain distance the Government's openness to taking uniformed personnel to the streets to control crime.

At the beginning of February, when Boric convened the National Security Council (Cosena) in La Moneda – a consultative body that is made up of various state authorities and the main military chiefs – the commander in chief of the Army, Javier Iturriaga,

made

it explicit : “These are tasks in which you have to interact with the population,” something for which military officials “lack training, education or adequate equipment,” said the Army leader.

Today, once again, they are cautious about carrying out preventive work without laws to protect them.

Mayors from different political sectors have joined Vodanovic's request on this occasion: Rodolfo Carter, from La Florida;

Emilia Ríos, from Ñuñoa;

Erika Martínez, from San Miguel, Carolina Leitao, from Peñalolén;

Cristopher White, from San Bernardo, among others in the Santiago Metropolitan Region, where crimes of high public connotation, such as homicides, are concentrated.

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