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Government admits that attack in Victoria "causes terror," but files lawsuit for criminal organization
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"It is an act that causes terror, there is no doubt about it," stated the Minister of Security, Luis Cordero, last night regarding the ambush with heavy-caliber weaponry that over the weekend left one worker dead and another seriously injured on a property of the CMPC company in Victoria, La Araucanía Region. This is the most severe act of violence in the southern macrozone in the last year and a half.
Cordero himself confirmed that the Government filed a lawsuit to pursue those responsible, but not under the Anti-Terrorism Law—as experts on the matter demand—but rather against a "criminal association that committed a qualified homicide."
According to the Secretary of State, "background information for (qualifying what happened as) terrorism is part of the investigation, and we will see (in the future)."
Cordero stated that in La Araucanía "terrorist acts are committed," and that the Executive has "been quite clear" on this, as "every time we have the background to activate it (the law), we have certainly done so." However, he insisted, "to avoid confusing the public," that the Executive has "filed a lawsuit for criminal association with qualified homicide."
"Common sense does not influence the legal qualification"
Earlier, the regional prosecutor of La Araucanía, Roberto Garrido, had stated that a potential qualification as a terrorist crime will be discussed when "we have gathered evidence and identified the individuals to make the accusation." When pressed by the press, he responded: "What one may qualify based on common sense does not influence the legal qualification we must make, because the law defines certain requirements."
On her social media, meanwhile, the regional director of Labor of La Araucanía, Carolina Ojeda, announced that they will investigate the causes of the "fatal accident" in Victoria. And the president of the DC and former co-president of the Commission for Peace and Understanding, Senator Francisco Huenchumilla, stated on TVN that "there is a prejudice that everything that happens here (in La Araucanía) is terrorism."
In this context, security experts debate whether the Government should have immediately invoked the Anti-Terrorism Law.
For former Undersecretary of the Interior and researcher at the Center for Security and Organized Crime Studies at U. San Sebastián, Felipe Harboe, "the terrorist motive of the attack is evident: they stole nothing, did not seek to affect properties in general, but rather to cause fear and terror, and ended up killing a worker." He argued that "if the terrorist motive is evident, the Government must file the action under the law on terrorist conduct, which now has additional tools and is no longer a problem for prosecutors." He added that "on the contrary, it can facilitate the investigation."
He emphasized that "in this case, there is no room for any kind of ideological prejudice, and it is evident that this is a terrorist action and must be pursued as such, regardless of the authority in charge."
Harboe dismissed the need for an eventual claim of responsibility by radicalized groups to qualify what happened as a terrorist act. "If we followed that thesis, many attacks would not have been terrorist attacks, because no one claimed responsibility for them."
In the opinion of the former regional prosecutor of La Araucanía and vice-dean of Law at the Autonomous University, Francisco Ljubetic, "the elements present in this crime point in that direction (terrorist action)." He detailed that "first, there is the role of the victims, which is related to one of the most attacked activities, which is forestry; as a second aspect, the sector, an area marked by acts of violence; and as a third point, what the new Anti-Terrorism Law establishes as the objectives of both a terrorist association and natural persons seeking to impose certain decisions on the authority is present."
Academic Alejandro Leiva, author of the book "Terrorism in Chile," opined that "it is not possible to abstract, in cases like this, from the terrorist purpose, due to the location where the act was carried out." He emphasized that "there is a legal truth that has been imposed in that Zone, regarding the existence of armed and organized groups that attack certain targets with a common denominator, with the goal of undermining the foundations of institutions and ensuring territorial control."
Contractors again turn to the ILO
The Association of Forestry Contractors, meanwhile, submitted a new request to the International Labour Organization "to urge the State of Chile to adopt concrete and urgent measures" to guarantee "a safe working environment" and create "a national occupational safety system."
Source:El Mercurio
