The growing criminal violence in Chile is putting the government of President Gabriel Boric in check, who made an impact with his reaction after the murder of a policeman: the head of state knelt during the service in memory of the uniformed officer, hugged his wife and cried together to her for a long time. A few meters away, former presidents Sebastián Piñera, Michelle Bachelet and Ricardo Lagos observed the scene.
"They killed me, they killed me!" said the wife of Corporal Daniel Palma Yáñez, who died early Thursday after being shot twice during a traffic control. He was the third member of the Carabineros, a militarized police force comparable to the Spanish Civil Guard, to be killed in the past month.
The event accelerated the approval of a security law, known as Nain-Retamal, and a financing package endowed with 1,500 million dollars to control a problem that is among the first concerns of Chileans. The law, however, is making the government coalition crack, the most to the left since the government of Salvador Allende in the '70s.
"When the police control popular demonstrations I see them covered with helmets and bulletproof vests, when they go after the drug traffickers, who are more dangerous, no," criticized Sergio Jadue, leader of the Communist Party (PC), part of the coalition but frequently in confrontation with Boric, before whom he lost the internal election for the candidacy for the presidency.
"I ask you to be responsible, do not turn your back on the president of Chile," criticized Juan Luis Castro, a senator from the Socialist Party, also part of the ruling left-wing coalition. Jadue's statements generated strong anger in the government.
Felix González, representative of the Green and Social Regional Federation (FRVS), was blunt: "This law violates human rights, gives the police the power to shoot first and ask questions later."
But Boric has no intention of negotiating. A harsh critic of the actions of the Carabineros a few years ago, when he was a deputy, the current president hastened to promulgate the law, to prevent it from being appealed to the Constitutional Court and delaying its entry into force. Boric is aware that the issue of security is key and he is reducing his electoral support base.
"We face crime as a State and as an organized society. In this there are no lefts or rights. We are united in this crusade and as the government of Chile we will continue to speak with facts. We will not let our police or citizens continue to be exposed to crime," he wrote. the president on the social network twitter.
Camila Vallejo, minister spokesperson for the government and member of the PC, although distanced from Jadue, asked the members of the government coalition and the opposition for responsibility: "A call to order, to rationality, a call to join the sense of responsibility and not to the political use of a moment that is difficult for the country".
Boric spent the first hours of Holy Week leading intense meetings with senior government officials, as well as a meeting with leaders of all political parties, with the exception of the Republican led by José Antonio Kast, the rival he defeated in the 2021 presidential elections. .
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