President Gabriel Boric announces implementation of Plan Calle sin Violencia and billion-dollar resource injection to fight crime
The plan will strengthen the operational and investigative capacity of the police and prosecutor’s offices. It will focus on the municipalities in which 50% of violent crime is concentrated. It will also reinforce protection for the police through safer equipment and materials.
President Gabriel Boric has spoken of the irreplaceable loss of Carabineros de Chile (Uniformed Police Service) Corporal, Daniel Palma, and announced the measures that are being taken and will be taken to directly fight crime. He was accompanied by Interior Minister Carolina Tohá, Treasury Minister Mario Marcel, and Minister Secretary General of the Government Camila Vallejo.
The President also stressed the importance of working together in the fight against crime; for this reason, he met today with the police and all branches of government. He also highlighted the enactment of the Naín-Retamal Law, “transversally approved by the vast majority of parliamentarians. It is a law that adequately protects the actions of Carabineros against criminal acts, which are increasingly cruel and overt.”
“The message that we are delivering today as a government, but above all as a State, is that when it comes to fighting crime and supporting Carabineros de Chile and law enforcement, there are no fissures in the Chilean State. We are confronting organized crime through the State and organized society. There is no government and opposition; there is no left and right; there is no old and young. We are all united in this crusade,” President Boric stated.
He added that he has held meetings with the general director of Carabineros, Ricardo Yáñez, the general director of the Policía de Investigaciones (Investigative Police Service, PDI) and the director of the National Intelligence Agency. President Boric stated, “I have asked the police to present and implement a plan to strengthen security for its members and to improve the protocols with which they act as soon as possible.”
Plan Calle sin Violencia
At this meeting, the President also instructed that implementation of the Plan Calle sin Violencia (Street without Violence Plan) be brought forward. The plan has been designed by the Interior Ministry in full coordination with both police forces.
“The policy for the Plan Calle sin Violencia is concrete and effective. It will include resources destined fundamentally to strengthen the operational and investigative capacity of the police and prosecutor’s offices, not only to prevent crime, but to punish it effectively. It includes applying legal reforms where appropriate in terms of police protection, strengthening the powers of the Chilean Prison Service, creating the crime of extorsion, as previously indicated, and stiffening the penalties for the crimes of kidnapping, as enacted this morning,” he indicated.
The plan will focus on municipalities that are home to a third of the Chilean population and in which 50% of violent crime is concentrated. It will also be accompanied by resources destined to strengthen green areas, sports spaces and educational spaces in these municipalities. These are more effective ways to combat crime in the long term.
Additional resources
In addition to the above, the President announced that he has destined a total US$1.5 billion annually, so that “added to the increases we’ve already made, which are included in the 2023 Budget, there will be a real increase of around 40% to the public budget, allocated to all the security-related functions to which I have previously referred. These are extra resources that will be distributed each year.”
“The additional resources will be provided as the administrative measures are adopted, as well as the legal reforms that provide for it, which all officials agree have a sense of urgency. It will be financed with emergency funds from the public treasury, not reallocations, not funds that are already earmarked for something else,” he clarified.
This fund will strengthen protection for the police through safer equipment and materials. It will strengthen criminal prosecution in solving homicides and associated crimes by reinforcing investigative processes, especially in cases where arms trafficking is involved.
In terms of strengthening police activity, in addition to the renewal of the vehicle fleet that is already in process, “we will have a more intensive control of arms, increased patrols and additional staffing of Carabineros, which will free them from administrative tasks. There will also be a special program to update the protective equipment available to our police, both Carabineros and PDI.”
In terms of control and infractions, the President announced that municipal control of regular and irregular commerce will be increased, as well as the control of properties occupied violently or illegally.
Finally, in relation to community interventions, “we are going to increase investment related to crime prevention, particularly in terms of security cameras, lights, cameras for the police, which involves an increase in investment for improving public spaces via the Regional and Administrative Development Undersecretary’s Office (SUBDERE), the Housing and Urban Development Ministry (MINVU) and municipalities.”