Cosena and the Lack of a Security Architecture

El Líbero, February 3, 2024

The call for Cosena conceals the real discussion: the development of a security architecture that serves as an umbrella to integrate the various legal initiatives currently being debated in Parliament.

Between Wallmapu and the National Security Council (Cosena) a lot has happened. They wanted to return the military to their barracks, only to bring them out when they arrived at La Moneda, claiming that Cosena would merely be a pill to later convene a meeting advising on the deployment of military forces under the critical infrastructure project. These back-and-forths have only contributed to Chileans losing credibility and trust in our leaders’ ability to address the insecurity in the country.

In this context, the call for Cosena has a communicational effect that is nothing more than that and conceals the real discussion: the development of a security architecture that serves as an umbrella to integrate the various legal initiatives currently being debated in Parliament.

Infrastructure, Intelligence, Ministry of Public Security and Antiterrorism have been the prioritized projects for the return from the legislative recess. While it is critical infrastructure that currently calls for Cosena, the truth is that the Ministry of Public Security and intelligence are priorities, as these two are essential for building that much-needed security architecture among the 31 projects proposed in April 2023.

Militarizing the national territory under the pretext of infrastructure shows that the problem is no longer one of public security, but of national security. This is not because the responsible institutions cannot work on it, but rather because political leadership has been unable to develop a real strategy that yields positive results.

These deficiencies will not be resolved by deploying military forces throughout Chile. Their mission is not that, and the risks involved are diverse. Moreover, the public security crisis must be addressed by the institutions responsible for it; strengthening and modernizing them is essential.

Today, Chile requires a coordinating body endowed with the power to integrate the work of all institutions, services, and units related to security, drawing from an intelligence system that provides relevant information for decision-making and politically guides security. Hence, the discussion about the new ministry and the intelligence system is so relevant.

However, it must incorporate technical aspects that clearly define the role and mission of each entity to minimize errors in the projects. Additionally, in the case of the Ministry of Security, the pertinent question relates to the level it will hold among its peers. This institution must be above them to have real power to coordinate them.

Without an agency with real coordinating power and a high-level intelligence system, it will be very difficult to build the security architecture we so desperately need, and calls for councils, committees, and working groups will not be successful.

Pilar Lizana
Senior Researcher, AthenaLab

Source: El Líbero