Headless Intelligence: President Boric Still Doesn’t Appoint New ANI Director

Interior Minister Izkia Siches’ first visit to La Araucanía was not as she or the rest of her entourage had hoped. When trying to enter the town of Temucuicui, in the commune of Ercilla, they were met with shots in the air that forced them to retreat.
After the incident, antecedents of the fact began to be revealed, such as that Siches herself ignored the recommendations of the Carabineros, that the area was dangerous. For this reason, in addition to questioning the preparation and “improvisation” of the trip, it also opens the debate on the level of intelligence information available to the country’s political authorities, which by law must be provided by the National Intelligence Agency (ANI).
What is also dangerous is that the same ANI at the moment is headless. After assuming the government of President Gabriel Boric, he has not yet named the successor of former sailor Gustavo Jordán, who took office on November 15, 2019 after the resignation of Luis Masferrer, who left office amid reproaches for the management of the ANI during the social outbreak.
What does Boric’s program say about ANI?
In Boric’s program, there were three references on the ANI: one in the framework of the efforts that the Boric administration will make to modernize the State and two on the importance it gives to the issue when talking about security.
For example, it is pointed out that “it is urgent to clear the political work of the Interior, but also to concentrate the organization and management of the security system in a technical portfolio that can guarantee the control of public order, receive intelligence information and supervise the path of security from prevention to reintegration.” “For this reason, and as a correction of the political use of crime management, we propose the creation of the Ministry of Security, Civil Protection and Citizen Coexistence. The police, the National Intelligence Agency, the National Emergency and Civil Protection System, Crime Prevention Programs, SENDA will be dependent on this Ministry,” he emphasizes.
On another point, the program establishes “the updating of the State intelligence system with a new architecture that allows the real integration of the different intelligence agencies and units under the command and control of a civilian agency with autonomous operational capabilities.”
Finally, it is indicated that it seeks “the improvement of the capabilities of the Financial Analysis Unit, integrating it as one of the key actors of the State Intelligence System to pursue money laundering and cut off the economic flow of organized crime.”

Original source in Spanish