MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Chile in mourning after murder of 3 Carabineros officers

Boric decreed three days of national mourning and pledged to capture those responsible

Three non-commissioned officers of Chile's Carabineros Police were killed early Saturday in an ambush in the town of Cañete, near the city of Concepción, in the Bío Bío region some 500 kilometers south of Santiago. The crime, which is still under investigation, shocked the entire country. President Gabriel Boric Font promised it would not go unpunished and other officials even called for the reinstatement of the death penalty.

The victims -1st Sergeant Carlos Cisterna Navarro, 1st Corporal Sergio Arévalo Lobos, and 1st Corporal Misael Vidal Cid- were reported to be driving along Route P72 when they were ambushed by an armed group, who shot them and then set fire to the vehicle.

The insecurity problem in southern Chile grew deeper with this occurrence in an area already gripped by Mapuche rebel activity. Boric decreed three days of national mourning. “Early this morning we received the serious and painful news of an attack in the province of Arauco in which three carabineros were killed,” he wrote on X while convening an emergency meeting with Ministers Carolina Tohá (Interior), Maya Fernández (Defense) and other officials to coordinate “immediate actions to respond to this cowardly attack.”

“I assure Chileans that there will be no impunity and that we will find the whereabouts of the perpetrators of this terrible crime,” he wrote. “Know, Carabineros de Chile, that you are not alone,” he also posted. “We will not rest until we find those responsible,” he also said before traveling to the Biobío region along with the Army, Air Force, and Navy chiefs, in addition to a group of lawmakers and the Supreme Court Chief Justice.

“As President of the Republic, I do not rule out any of the legal tools at our disposal,” said Boric from the crime scene area. “The best weapon we have to fight these criminals, these ruthless people who have committed this horrendous crime, is unity, that is why the State is present,” Boric also said. “In order to face this situation, there must be neither left, nor right, nor officialism, nor opposition; Chile has to be there,” he insisted.

“We are going to make decisions accordingly, with a cool head. With the information given to us by the police together and working in a coordinated manner all the powers of the State,” he added. “Today in Chile, there is a tearing, there is sorrow, there is rage. We - as a government - also have it and we know that the Carabineros institution and, particularly, the families of those who have been brutally murdered, are in immeasurable pain,” he acknowledged.

Tohá and Carabineros Director General Ricardo Yáñez also traveled to the area of the crime, from where images of the burned Carabineros pick-up truck were shown. “The truth is that I cannot be more hurt, more sad. With rage. Why do they kill us? Why do they keep persecuting us?” said Yáñez about the crime committed on Carabineros Day. “This was not random,” he stressed. “To kill a carabinero is to kill the soul of Chile,” he added.

“The Fire Department received a report of a vehicle on fire and, when they arrived at the scene, they discovered that it was a Carabineros patrol, in a vehicle that was engaged in the control of precautionary measures in the area. And, inside the vehicle, they discovered the three deceased officers, in this burnt condition,” Tohá explained.

Following Boric's instructions, Yáñez was to remain in the area, together with Minister Fernández and Interior Undersecretary Manuel Monsalve to coordinate the investigation.

Meanwhile, Bío Bío Governor Rodrigo Díaz called for the reinstatement of the death penalty and urged Boric's administration to submit a bill before Congress in this regard. “I hope that the Government will send a bill to Parliament and that it will be accepted by the parliamentarians. For example, to reinstate the death penalty for those who murder police officers. These carabineros or any other police officer,” he said in a statement. He also suggested “that the Public Defender's Office should never defend people who murder police officers.”

Former presidential candidate and rightwing opposition leader José Antonio Kast also called for the dismissal of Tohá and Monsalve: “The President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric must decree a state of siege today. He must summon today the Armed Forces and the Police Forces and pursue these murderers to exhaustion, to lock them up, condemn them, and apply to them the full rigor of the Law, but that is not enough. The President must today also dismiss his security team: Carolina Tohá, Manuel Monsalve, [and] Mr. [Eduardo] Vergara,” he stressed. “President Boric, the time has come to wake up,” he added.

The area of the crime is under military guard due to repeated arson attacks perpetrated by radical Mapuche groups allegedly fighting for their ancestral lands now in the hands of foreign forestry companies. Last week, Mapuche leader Héctor Llaitul of the Arauco-Malleco Coordinating Committee (CAM) was found guilty of “violent usurpation of land”, theft, and “attacking authority” and could face up to 25 years in jail in a sentence to be announced on May 7.

Boric has long ago decreed the militarization of the Arauco province, together with other localities in the neighboring Araucanía region in a move to curb Mapuche violence.