This weekend, in several cities in Chile, the population paid tribute to the three police officers killed on Saturday April 28. While the director general of police, although in turmoil, will be kept in his post.
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With our correspondent in Santiago, Naïla Derroisné
The investigation continues to determine the circumstances of last Saturday’s attack which caused the death of three police officers in the Bobio region, in the south of the country. The attackers have not yet been identified and the motive for the attack remains unknown. The events took place in a tense region where conflict has existed for several years around the ancestral lands of the Mapuche people, but where criminal gangs also operate.
It is Gabriel Boric himself who suggested it: Ricardo Yáñez, number 1 of the Carabineros should not leave his post. The left-wing president thus demonstrated his total support for the police following the assassination of the three carabineers last Saturday.
However, a judicial investigation would be opened in a few days against the director general of police for offenses and crimes committed during the social crisis of 2019, when Ricardo Yáñez was in charge of order and security.
Indignation in the presidential camp
“ Now is not the time to weaken or move key people », declared the Prime Minister to justify the maintenance of General Yáñez while the police are in mourning.
A rather contradictory decision since Boric’s government had notably decided that no senior official could remain in office after the formalization of an investigation against him.
In the presidential camp, it is the Chilean Communist Party which is outraged by this decision, accusing President Boric of giving in to pressure from the right.
But it is only a question of time since the opening of the judicial investigation against General Yáñez will take place, it has been postponed until October.