Defense Minister visits Army border patrols in Colchane: “They are carrying out the migration control work that has been assigned to them”
The minister praised the role that the Armed Forces have played in northern Chile, and assured that the coordinated work with Carabineros (uniformed police service) has been fruitful.
National Defense Minister Maya Fernández visited today the Army border posts located in the municipality of Colchane. Her goal was to inspect and review the operation of Armed Forces personnel located on the country’s northern border.
The national defense minister arrived at the town of Cariquima at ten o’clock in the morning to visit an old patrol base. She arrived from Iquique, where she had participated via video-conference the previous day in a House committee to review the bill updating the Rules for the Use of Force.
Minister Fernández greeted and spoke with Carabineros officials from the Colchane Sub-commission, and inspected a street checkpoint, where military personnel carry out preventive controls. She was accompanied by the commander of the Northern Joint Command, General Pedro Varela, and the commander of the Border Area Headquarters, Brigadier General Ramón Oyarzún.
She later moved on to the Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade, where the Colchane Patrol Base operates at more than 3,700 meters above sea level. At the facility, the minister spoke with military personnel and learned about the work they do in the context of the Critical Infrastructure Law.
The national defense minister stated, “it is very important to be in the field visiting the troops, who are doing a tremendous job in fulfilling their assigned tasks. It is the job of the defense minister to be here, to be able to talk and learn, because we can also see the coordinated work that is being carried out between the Carabineros and the Armed Forces. The important thing is that they are carrying out the migratory control work that has been assigned to them.”
The commander of the Border Area Headquarters, Brigadier General Ramón Oyarzún, explained that the Army “deployment is going as planned. Since Decree 78 came into force, we have used the foundations that our people already had in the area, integrated with Carabineros. We only had to work on incorporating the new attributes of the supreme decree. It has been carried out well, to cooperate with controlling illegal migrants who try to leave or enter Chilean territory.”
Minister Fernández will return to Iquique in the afternoon, where she will visit the facilities of the Army Armored Combat Training Center (CECOMBAC).