In the presence of widows and relatives of Carabineros victims of crime, as well as groups of relatives of disappeared detainees, the Senate Chamber began the discussion of the Naín-Retamal Law. This, after the general approval of the instance by the Security Commission of the Corporation.
In the midst of a tense atmosphere, Senator Fabiola Campillai (IND), was the first parliamentarian to intervene against the initiative, stood up to address the Upper House and called the project an “aberration.” In addition, he announced that if the initiative is approved, he will request the presidential veto, since it offers impunity to the Carabineros.
“I stand up to speak because, apparently, it is not enough for this Senate to have a colleague, who was shot in the face by a police officer with a weapon that was supposedly a non-lethal weapon and that could have been lethal for me, because I was between life and death,” Campillai said.
“Today, that carabinero, thanks to God and justice, is imprisoned, twelve years in prison. Does this ‘trigger-happy’ law say that there can be retroactive impunity? In other words, you will be able to review the case of the person who shot me. What do we say to people who lost family,” the parliamentarian added.
In addition to the above, the senator said that “this project came out worse than the Security Commission, it is an aberration as it is today. Not even the UN high commissioner was heard. It is unpresentable and I say it standing, because I want to see who votes in favor of this project, because this project is not going to prevent more people from dying.”
At the end of his speech, it was time for the word of the former member of the Republican Party, Senator Carmen Gloria Aravena (IND), who summoned Campillai and assured that she will vote in favor since “we are in a democracy, not in a dictatorship.”
“Contrary to what my colleague, Senator Campillai, said, this law is not trigger-happy at all, nor is it a privilege, rather it is a right, mainly linked to privileged legitimate defense, which is not a privilege but it is clearly a necessity to return to the Carabineros, police and Armed Forces, legitimate defense against a situation in which they did not ask for it. fulfilling their duties and today they are often persecuted and condemned to lose their careers because they had to defend themselves or someone else,” he said.
“This bill that increases penalties for crimes committed against authorities in the exercise of public order was long overdue. I know that we are divided on this, and I have no problem telling Senator Campillai that yes, I am going to vote in favor of this project and I regret that it threatens those of us who voted for or against,” Aravena added.
In the same vein, the independent senator said that “we are in democracy, not in dictatorship. And we have the right to defend our principles, values and mainly defend a region like La Araucanía, which has experienced more than 7,000 terrorist attacks and in many of them Carabineros, Mapuche people and civilians have been victims.”
The parliamentarians continued with the debate on the initiative when it was the turn of Senator Iván Moreira (UDI), who also responded to Campillai and affirmed that his statements “give us the necessary strength to vote” the Naín-Retamal Law.
“This is a political chamber, it’s not a chamber of experts. When I heard earlier a lady senator (Campillai) use the term ‘aberration’, what a shame, and she threatens us how we are going to vote. I can tell you that it gives us the strength to vote with greater conviction for this project.”
It was at that moment when the attendees in the audience began to shout different slogans, so Moreira replied that “when we hear these cries we know perfectly well that it is the hatred of 50 years ago, and in these last 30 years those who most talk about democracy are precisely a resentful left with a hate speech. ”
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