Three police officers were murdered in the early hours of this Saturday in southern Chile, in what was considered the worst attack suffered by security forces in the area in recent history. The central hypothesis indicates that they were victims of an ambush, just on the day the anniversary of the police institution is commemorated.
The police officers were found burned inside a police patrol on a route in the town of Cañete, near the city of Concepción, about 500 km south of Santiago.
The area is under military guard due to the arson attacks that have occurred there, mostly attributed to radical Mapuche groups, the largest Chilean ethnic group, which demands the restitution of ancestral lands.
Authoritarians don’t like this
The practice of professional and critical journalism is a fundamental pillar of democracy. That is why it bothers those who believe they are the owners of the truth.
The attack occurred on the day that the Carabineros, the Chilean militarized police, celebrated its 97th anniversary. “I have no record in my history of 38 years of service, of the death of a carabinero, and not only one, but three murdered cruel, on our anniversary. This was not coincidental, it was not random.”said the general director of Carabineros, Ricardo Yañez.
The patrol that they burned with three police officers
“This morning we received the serious and painful news of an attack in the province of Arauco in which three police officers were murdered,” President Gabriel Boric, who traveled to the area, reported on his X account.
Commemorative activities across Chile were canceled following the murders and Boric declared three days of official mourning. The attack takes place the same week that the justice system found Héctor Llaitul, leader of the Coordinadora Arauco-Malleco (CAM), one of the groups that has claimed arson attacks in the area.
Llaitul could have up to 25 years in prison for these crimes, in a sentence that the court will announce on May 7.
In Chile they talk about a “terrible crime” and Boric promised that “there will be no impunity”
According to what the Minister of the Interior and Security, Carolina Tohá, told the press, “the Firefighters received a notice of a vehicle on fire and, when they arrived at the scene, they discovered that it was a Carabineros patrol.”
Military presence at the scene
“Inside the vehicle, they discovered the three deceased officials, in this charred condition,” added Tohá, who also traveled to the area.
The van in which the police were traveling was armored. The bodies were found in the back of the vehicle and had been left there after receiving bursts of gunfire on the road, where they fell dead, according to the preliminary investigation.
“I assure Chileans that there will be no impunity and that we will find the whereabouts of the perpetrators of this terrible crime.”said Boric, who described the perpetrators of this triple murder as “terrorists.”
Together with Boric, in a sign of institutional unity, the commanders of the Army, Air Force and Navy, as well as parliamentarians, and the president of the Supreme Court traveled to the city of Concepción.
Boric declared himself in favor of a reform of Chile’s political system
“There are no fissures here; we are a single force of the State of Chile, of Chilean society against those criminals, against those terrorists who have committed this murder that mourns the entire country,” added the president.
Upon arriving in Concepción, Boric reported that he does not rule out convening the National Security Council (Cosena), the highest advisory body on these matters.
In Santiago, meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered near the presidential palace of La Moneda, to protest the murder of the three police officers.
AFP/Gi