Controversy in Chile for “preventive detention” for any crime involving undocumented foreigners

The proposal of the Chilean Prosecutor’s Office to dictate “preventive prison” for undocumented foreigners who are detained for any crime has unleashed a bitter national debate and international concern, since it represents an exceptional measure in the region that is not applied even by countries with the harshest immigration policies.

A decision that adds to the recently approved “Naím-Retamal Law”, which grants greater freedom of action to the Police in the use of weapons and reduces the assumption of responsibilities by avoiding proportionality and which, according to these organizations, represents a “dangerous recoil” of Chile in respect for human rights.

“It is worrying that this measure is announced in a context in which a narrative that reinforces stereotypes against migrants has been growing in our country and that can lead to an increase in racist practices”, explained the director of Amnesty International (AI) Chile, Rodrigo Bustos, to EFE.

In his opinion, request preventive detention for crimes that do not carry a custodial sentence “It would be a kind of anticipated penalty and an instrument of migration control rather than a precautionary measure based on criminal reproach”.

To the criticism of this controversial recommendation of the Prosecutor’s Office, of which according to AI “similar experiences are not known”, associations of migrants and the Public Ministry itself also joined.

Last word for the judges

In Chile, the three cases regulated by the Criminal Code to request the most burdensome precautionary measure contemplated by law point to the existence of a danger to the security of society; a danger to the safety of the victim and the risk of flight. Precisely, the latter is the cause to which the State Attorney General, Ángel Valencia, ordered to adhere.

However, the last word rests with the guarantee judges, who decide whether or not to accept the request of the persecutors, although Valencia also ordered an appeal in cases where the courts reject their request and stressed that “in no case” will substitute sentences be offered. foreign defendants without regular identity.

Since Friday, when the new guideline was implemented, most judges have accepted the request for preventive detention or have extended the detention of the accused by several days.

This Tuesday, the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá, slipped the possibility of establishing by law the instruction of the national prosecutor so that it is not left to the discretion of the judge or the prosecutor on duty.

“False identities”, according to the Prosecutor’s Office

Valencia, who came to office in January after two frustrated attempts due to the Senate’s rejection of the candidates proposed by the Government, went to the Constitution Commission of the Upper House on Monday where he defended his controversial decision.

“In the north-central zone of the Metropolitan Region, between 35 and 40% of detainees who enter the Santiago Justice Center are foreigners. Of them, a third does not carry an identity card, ”he argued.

The complexity, for the Prosecutor’s Office, would occur with the defendants who are released with the commitment to attend a Civil Registry and Identification office to be granted a provisional identity number. However, as the Public Ministry has detected, in many cases, they either do not show up at the offices or give false names, so that the Justice and the Prosecutor’s Office cannot corroborate their identity and the investigation is stopped.

Repercussion in prisons

The controversial instruction, implemented after the murder of police officer Daniel Palma at dawn last Thursday, during a routine control, also placed the overcrowding situation in Chilean prisons on the radar.

On Friday, the Minister of Justice, Luis Cordero, assured that the Government will improve coordination with the Civil Registry to verify the identity of foreigners, but warned that the occupation in Chilean prisons is increasing.

“The number of people deprived of liberty has been on a sustained increase, in the last year in particular, and the projections are equivalent for the months that follow and the beginning of next year. We are enabling new positions, but it is evident that we are in a situation of growth of inmates”, expressed Cordero.

This Monday several regional prosecutors also alerted Valencia to the low capacity of the Civil Registry in the regions outside the capital, where there are delays of up to a month to process the documentation, which would lengthen the preventive detention of the accused.

Source: EFE