Public Security: It Is Not the Laws, It Is the Lack of Strategy

El Líbero, November 19, 2022

It is time to consider an architecture that provides the institutional and legislative framework that each link in the public security chain requires. This is the government’s responsibility.

The government is mistaken in saying that the law is the problem. In the Southern Macrozone, it states that the anti-terrorism law has not detained anyone and that they will pursue organized crime; in Santiago, that Safe Classroom has not contributed to reducing violence in schools. However, the truth is that laws provide us with parameters and tools to pursue and sanction crime. If we believe they are not providing that, let us not discard them; let us review them, update them, and if after that there are no changes, let us modify them. But blaming them for how institutions apply them is not the way forward. 

Furthermore, there is a fundamental error in the authorities’ statements when they report that crimes in the Southern Macrozone will be pursued as organized crime. Each crime has its own nature, determined by the goals pursued by criminal groups. When we see the actions of logging mafias whose ultimate goal is economic, it is certainly appropriate to sanction them as organized crime. However, the actions of groups like the Coordinadora Arauco Malleco, whose objective is autonomy, that is, political, cannot be sanctioned with the same parameters as those mafias. Hence the importance of legislation. Just as not everything is organized crime, not everything is terrorism, and the same law does not serve to pursue both. 

The public security chain has various links. For a long time, the focus has been on the first, the police institutions. Multiple debates have been held about their work. Now another is being discussed: the laws that allow for investigation and sanctioning. While it is always good to maintain an updated legislative debate that responds to the needs of changing criminal scenarios, we should also review the actions of the judiciary in its application. Especially if, in cases like timber theft, there has been a concerning drop in reports due to a loss of trust that cases will reach a conclusion. 

First, it was said that Carabineros needed to be restructured as it did not meet the standards for new challenges; now it is said that the laws are ineffective. It is time to stop blaming the pavement! The driver of security is the President through the Minister of the Interior. It is neither the institutions nor the legislation that will guide security planning; it is those political authorities who must be able to set aside their ideology to, with a broad perspective, diagnose, design, implement, and evaluate a strategy that allows for progress toward a context of peace. 

It is unnecessary to enumerate the countless new crimes that have arrived in the country, nor the violence with which they are committed. Seeking culprits will only give crime more time to adapt and control more territory than it already does. It is time to think of a security architecture that provides the institutional and legislative framework that each link in the public security chain needs, and that is the government’s task. They may seek agreements, propose budget increases, and many other things, but without that framework, nothing will be sufficient. 

Pilar Lizana
Researcher at AthenaLab