Sebastián Piñera and His Commitment to Security

El Líbero, February 9, 2024

May Sebastián Piñera’s legacy in security be that he initiated the dialogue to lay the foundations for restoring peace to our cities.

In Chile, the figure of the President of the Republic is fundamental for the country. People look to the person in this position for solutions to problems and expect to find someone who puts Chileans first and assures them that they will do their best to overcome crises.

The President Piñera faced several crises, but undoubtedly one of the most significant for today’s Chile was the social outbreak. Since that October 18 onward, the country entered a security crisis that reached its peak during this administration. Democracy was at risk, leftist forces demanded the President’s resignation; however, Sebastián Piñera managed to unify political leadership and in November 2019 initiated an institutional exit to the problem of violence.

Today, security is the primary urgency. Citizens are pressuring authorities, who have pushed a legislative agenda to respond to popular demands. With little success, as day by day Chileans lose trust in their leaders, authorities seek to send signals of having control over the situation. At times, they argue that these are inherited problems and blame the previous government.

However, the truth is that President Piñera, in July 2018, four months after assuming his second term, published the National Agreement for Public Security which, among other things, included strengthening the intelligence system and regulating and controlling firearms. Additionally, he proposed, in December 2020, a bill against organized crime and in September 2021 another that created the Ministry of Public Security.

Sebastián Piñera once said that being in opposition is easy, as in their role of controlling power they seek to highlight the weaknesses of those in front. However, governing is much more difficult; it involves successfully solving problems. This is precisely what is lacking today.

Currently, we see the government pushing laws that they had voted against when they were parliamentarians, including in their legislative agenda projects proposed by Piñera and calling for a cross-party security agreement. It seems that not everything was so bad nor were all the problems inherited.

The former president united the forces of his sector behind his presidential candidacy on two occasions, brought together different parties in an agreement for peace, and managed to get prominent figures from the Concertación to join the institutional exit from the social outbreak. That unity is what we need today to respond to the security crisis.

May his perseverance and pragmatism not remain in that lake but transcend to others, and may those who come take up the baton of the measures promoted in 2018. Strengthen, deepen, and improve them. Finally, may Sebastián Piñera’s legacy in security be that he initiated the dialogue to lay the foundations for restoring peace to our cities.

Pilar Lizana
Senior Researcher, AthenaLab

Source: El Líbero