By Marcos Roitman Rosenmann on February 10, 2021
The murder of Francisco Martínez Romero, a young street artist, at the hands of the Carabineros, has set off a new explosion among the people. Five shots at close range ended his life at the age of 29. But the despicable action was followed by the cowardice of those who perpetrated this crime. Their response was not to offer aid, but rather to flee the scene, leaving Francisco to suffer until he died. What followed was representative of how fed up people are at the impunity enjoyed by the police for their actions. The streets of Chile filled with people requesting that they be held responsible. Panguipulli, in the south of Chile where the murder occurred, was overcome with shouts of frustration and rage, an assault on the police station followed, as well as on the seat of municipal government, the post office and other public buildings, which were burned down almost completely.
The grievances are numerous. The government of Sebastian Piniera and the greater right-wing of Chile has basically exercised dictatorial power, imposed by extreme violence. Their principal arm for carrying out their mandate is an institution that lost its integrity on September 11, 1973, when the Pinochet coup supporters fired and imprisoned the commanding officers, all of whom were loyal to President Salvador Allende. Half a century has passed since then and the Carabinero police force continues to accumulate atrocities including accusations of rape, torture, kidnapping, and political assassinations. But the perpetrators are always found guiltless. A banner has been displayed in Santiago with the following slogan: “The pigs kill, rape, rob, and torture. Freedom for the prisoners of the October uprising. No Impunity!”
There are innumerable cases of human rights violations committed by the Carabineros that have been filed or dismissed. They are an armed force that can count on the support of political parties of all stripes. During the dictatorship they enjoyed a carte blanche license to rob, kill, and commit crimes, and, since 1989, all presidents have offered them protection. This has made them powerful. Patricio Aylwin, Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle, Ricardo Lagos, Michelle Bachelet and Sebastián Piñera have all allowed them to use unlimited force. Their message has been identical: they can continue shooting and repressing, and we will defend them.
During this decade the government has given them the latest in death and repression technology consistent with the surveillance capitalism of our times. Light tanks, bean-bag-round shotguns, urban combat armored cars, tear gas grenades, ultra-light weapons and chemical weapons make up their arsenal. To the above-mentioned, we must add courses directed toward training in repression and under-cover infiltration activity in demonstrations. The recent leak of their latest Carabinero Manual for Special Operations for control of public order demonstrates this. In its 215 pages, we can find extensive protocols for launching chemical agents, employment of tear gas, use of the Escort and Franchi shotguns, and the use of chemical grenades at ground level or behind crowds. Also included in this manual are details of deployment in fan-shapes, sweeps, drags, and the user manuals of gas-grenade guns Stopper and AM-600.
Since the 18th of October of 2019, when the popular rebellion began, the Carabineros have caused blindness or eye damage to 460 people on purpose. To date, there are more than two thousand accusations filed against the police for abuse of authority, rape and torture. But their response has been to terrorize, arrest, and imprison those who demand justice. However, the cowardice of the corrupt government, that betrays its people and represses them, has caused them to close ranks. Thus Interior Minister Mario Desbordes, the former president of the National Renovation Party, at that time a former Carabinero officer made the following statement once the killing of the young street artist was revealed, “In Germany or in Chile, the police make use of their weapon” and always in lawful defense.
The conduct and actions of the Carabineros have been surrounded by deaths, and, in the southern part of the country, their goal has been to destroy the organizations of the Mapuche people and to repress them. All the governments have given them carte blanche for their illegal behavior. Routine operations of their commandos include burning homes, kidnapping children, intimidating over-flights, rape, and assassination of community leaders and organizers. With this goal, they have shot people in the back, burned crops, destroyed farming tools, and acted as bodyguards for the paramilitaries of the landowners and timber industries that are trying to take over the land and expel the Mapuche people from Wallmapu, their ancestral territory.
The killing of Francisco Martinez cannot go unpunished. The people of Chile have taken over the streets of the cities and towns from north to south, and they demand an end to police impunity. It is the courage of the Mapuche and Chilean people that reveals the cowardice of a government that protects crime and impunity, shielding themselves behind the institution of the Carabinero police force. “Order and Homeland” is the motto on their shield. But they mean an order that secures a militarized neoliberalism, and a miserable homeland that the plutocracy holds to be their private property.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau