The President of Chile, Sebastian Pinera decreed the State of Exception in four provinces of the northern border. According to the outgoing president, the measure allows the Armed Forces to intervene in internal tasks and to work together with the police to control migration.
The state of emergency decreed this Wednesday by Piñera governs the provinces of Arica, Parinacota, Tamarugal and Loa. The president specified that the zone was reinforced with 100 carabineros and 672 members of the Armed Forces for the protection of the borders “accompanied with greater, equipment and technology”. According to the head of state, the measure allows the Armed Forces. Chileans collaborate with the police to “control illegal immigration”.
“In addition to generating humanitarian problems, it also generates security, crime and public order problems, and is often used by real organized crime gangs for drug trafficking, arms trafficking, human trafficking, merchandise smuggling and many other evils,” affirmed from Palacio La Moneda that he will leave the next March 11 when President-elect Gabriel Boric takes office.
The measure will be in force for 15 days and Congress may renew it for another 15 days. Under the state of Exception, the security forces are expected to carry out joint patrols. In addition they were equipped with drones that will be deployed in the area, helicopters for surveillance and transfer available 24 hours a day, as well as telecommunication equipment, monitoring with night and thermal vision.
More than seven percent of the Chilean population is made up of migrants (1.4 million), with a greater presence of Venezuelan citizens, followed by the Peruvian, Haitian and Colombian community. According to Piñera, the migration crisis is a global and regional phenomenon and that in Latin America “we are being affected by more than 6 million Venezuelans who have left that country due to the political, economic, social and humanitarian crisis.”
