Approximate reading time: 3 minutes, 13 seconds
While the fight against organized crime takes over the national agenda for the second consecutive year, manages it naturally and allocates enormous resources to support the work of the police, there are social needs that are not considered and inexorably worsen as the year goes by. time.
In this country that frequently goes from one crisis to another without any of them being controlled, the containment of crime in its most varied expressions has priority one, two and three, while the popular classes remain marginalized, without space and without power. access dignity in their precarious living conditions.
The so-called organized crime – which is not new in Chile – causes fear in the population, but large sectors of citizens are also frightened by various socioeconomic factors and without help from anywhere, such as poverty, unemployment, layoffs, abuses and the lack of opportunities, calamities that constitute a fundamental pillar of the model of inequalities still in place.
Mostly, the prevailing inequality is the origin of multiple cases of crime and drug trafficking that shock the country. However, the government is weak and is easily carried away by the pressures exerted by the conservative opposition, which prevents it from changing its focus and strategies regarding this relentless scourge.
The wealthy right that longs for the dictatorship does not seek solutions for the needs of the street. He despises the poor, confuses them with criminals and the only thing he would like for them is to subdue them, silence them and ultimately end up in jail so that they do not continue to bother them like a stone in their shoe or require solidarity just to survive to the extent of the possible.
Clearly the objectives of Pinochetism and its followers intend to continue strengthening the Carabineros by providing it with more personnel, more resources and equipment, vehicles for patrols and modern technologies. Thus, no one remembers the inequality and what has been pending since the end of 2019, that is, the multiple violations of the human rights of the protesters of the social outbreak, a large part of which remain in impunity.
President Boric forgot about the refoundations and has repeatedly expressed his support for the Carabineros. At the same time, in the traditional “hugs festival” of the Communist Party he was categorical: “We have to be with the poorest in our country and also with that middle class exhausted by a system that is unfair and that hides deep inequalities that, as government, as political forces, we have the duty to fight and overcome.”
Against Boric are the red numbers that have been dragging on since long before his administration: half a million people live in transit camps and two million street merchants fill the streets selling what they can to survive. In the last quarter, unemployment was 8.7%, especially due to layoffs in the private sector, which last year reached a monthly average of 30,000 due to “company needs.” There is a delay in the creation of formal job sources, there are unemployed people incorporated into the permanent category, many are looking for work for the first time and the NEET generation is increasing.
Only self-employment increases, which is above 30%, a figure considered historic. Informal employment affects the lives of many who do not have health insurance, unemployment insurance or insurance for work accidents and who will later be left out of the pension system. It seems that formal, stable and decent employment has become at this point a luxury that is difficult to access.
Because of the situation at the Huachipato steel plant, union leaders in the Bio Bio region speak of a “labor outbreak,” which in the current circumstances is greatly needed. In Cabildo, Valparaíso region, workers fear the closure of the Cerro Negro mine. Finally, the CUT has reacted to this uncertain panorama and announces a national strike for April 11, understanding that La Moneda is doing everything possible to build good relations with the business community, but not with the workers.
From another angle, the Ministry of Health has reported that in 2022, 44 thousand patients who were on waiting lists in public hospitals died, which represents a 10% increase compared to the previous year. Many retirees die each year waiting for a substantial improvement in their pensions from hunger and numerous elderly teachers who were promised payment of the so-called historical debt have also died.
While for a long time the political caste has kept bills that are key for the government, such as the pension and tax reform, stuck, the wealth is not distributed and many families overwhelmed by poverty and whose head of household remains unemployed do not reach to reach the end of the month with their precarious budgets. Just around the corner are homicides, assaults, robberies, kidnappings, lock-ins and slamming doors.
The State has squandered considerable public funds on fantasy programs such as “streets without violence”, on strengthening the police and on maintaining the Undersecretariat for Crime Prevention, which is only capable of corroborating and regretting what has already happened. Certainly we must look for other alternatives that operate effectively and allow the provision of resources for what the impoverished majorities need.
“Crime moves us and occupies us, we must improve the security conditions of Chileans,” said President Boric emphatically in Guatemala, when informed of one of the many bloody events that occurred in Santiago. Along with this, if with the same emphasis and the same interest the same amounts of money are allocated to the social needs of the people, significant progress will have been made in the daily fight against organized crime.
Hugo Alcayaga Brisso
Valparaiso
