Executive's Bill Does Not Compensate Victims of Violence in the Southern Macrozone

Without a ceremony at La Moneda or any activity in Congress. Stealthily, the Government submitted the bill for the recognition, qualification, and, where applicable, reparation of victims of violence from the intercultural and territorial conflict in the regions of Biobío, La Araucanía, Los Ríos, and Los Lagos. The bill was noted in the Senate's floor session on Tuesday.

The proposal originates in part from suggestions by the Commission for Peace and Understanding, created by mandate of President Gabriel Boric.

Precisely, this is where the controversy arises, because the Commission had recommended, among other aspects, compensating the victims, even as a guiding principle in the draft law attached to the final report of the Commission for Peace and Understanding. However, the text submitted by the Government does not include it.

The compensations were recently reported on by "El Mercurio," so now the surprise is immense among legislators from the southern macrozone, who accuse the Executive of drafting the bill with "fine print," for not including economic restitution for victims of violence.

In its articles 17 to 22, the initiative proposes creating the Program for the Care of Victims of Violence from the Intercultural and Territorial Conflict.

Far from expectations, the regulation contemplates measures for psychological, legal, and social care, mechanisms for the restoration of economic and social activities, access to benefits in housing, health, and education, as well as actions for memory, dialogue, coexistence, and violence prevention.

Submission amid year-end holidays

Accordingly, the financial report accompanying the bill explicitly states that the initiative will not incur additional fiscal expenditure, adding that for the delivery of reparation measures, a total of $6 billion is contemplated, already anchored in the Rural Violence Program of the Undersecretariat of the Interior.

It was that division that reported on social media about the presentation of the bill on reparation mechanisms, explaining that three "central recommendations" from the Commission for Peace and Understanding had been gathered; none related to giving compensations to victims of violence.

It follows, chronologically, that the initiative was submitted to Congress on Wednesday, December 24, 2025; five days later, the Undersecretariat of the Interior reported, via a statement, on the submission of the bill to Parliament, which was only noted last Tuesday due to the two-week year-end recess. Only after all that could the literal content of La Moneda's text be known.

"A scam"

Alerted by this newspaper, legislators from the southern macrozone Joanna Pérez (Democrats) and Flor Weisse (UDI), both from the Biobío Region; and the deputy and senator-elect for La Araucanía, Miguel Ángel Becker (RN), expressed disappointment upon learning that there would be no compensations for victims of violence.

In response, the recriminations were harsh. Weisse labeled the bill as a "scam orchestrated and endorsed by Boric. The criminals of the 'outburst' have more economic reparations."

For Becker, the text "has unacceptable fine print. It does not contemplate any indemnification or economic compensation for those who have lost everything as a result of violence and terrorism" in the south.

Pérez said she had publicly denounced that this would happen: "We had to be cautious with the announcements of this Government, because we haven't forgotten how they came to govern with an empty slogan, of no more AFP, no more ISAPREs (...) and these last-minute announcements are also empty messages."

Unless the Executive assigns urgency to it, the processing of the bill is unlikely.

Source:El Mercurio