The leader of the Carabineros has resigned after a violent op …

The director of the Carabineros de Chile, Mario Rozas, has resigned after a savage police operation in which two teenagers were shot and wounded. in the town of Talcahuano, about 500 kilometers south of Santiago. The opposition and various international organizations have been calling for the departure of Rozas for months because of the police brutality exercised during the demonstrations that erupted at the end of 2019 and left around thirty dead and thousands injured. According to the public prosecutor, there are more than 4,600 cases against the security forces for human rights violations in the repression of marches, but only 75 officers were charged.

President Sebastián Piñera accepted Rozas’s resignation and appointed General Ricardo Yáñez in his place. Yanez he was second in command of the police And this one too strewn with various complaints. Just a few days ago, the Chilean Senate rejected the request for indictment opened against the former Minister of the Interior, Víctor Pérez, for his responsibility in various acts of violence perpetrated by carabinieri and in the judgment truck drivers who, in August, blocked the country’s roads. for almost a week.

“I accepted the resignation of General Mario Rozas and I proceeded with the appointment of General Ricardo Yáñez as the new director of the Carabineros”, announced the President Sebastián Piñera, who showed “his utmost appreciation, admiration and gratitude” for the outgoing official. “He had to lead the Chilean police in an extremely difficult and complex period, in which we suffered too much violence”, assured the president of the right.

Rozas took over the management of the Carabineros in December 2018 after the departure of his predecessor, Hermès Soto, accused of orchestrating a montage after the murder of member of the Mapuche community Camilo Catrillanca in the south. The most controversial cases in which Rozas has been distinguished during the wave of protests that erupted in October last year, Gustavo Gatica and Fabiola Campillai, completely blind after being shot dead with pellets and tear gas canisters in the face by Carabineros agents.

Criticism of Rozas intensified last October, a few days after the first anniversary of the social epidemic, when an officer threw a minor into a riverbed during a demonstration, causing serious injury. The trigger for his departure, however, was the incidents on Wednesday at a home of the National Juvenile Service in Talcahuano, in which two teenagers were shot dead by police.

According to the latest medical report, teenagers between the ages of 14 and 17 are not life threatening. The younger of the two was admitted to Talcahuano hospital with a gunshot wound to his leg and no bone injuries. It is in good condition and will be under observation in the coming days. For his part, the oldest was successfully operated on in the operating room for a bullet in the thigh and is recovering.

Depending on the version of Children’s advocate, Patricia Muñoz, the Talcahuano incident was triggered when police “in an absolutely wrongful and excessive manner” used their firearms and injured teenagers, who were under the protection of a state institution. “This situation is yet another manifestation of the horror of state violence. exercised by those who, having a duty to protect children and adolescents, ultimately attack them in an unjustified and undue manner ”, added Muñoz.

For Sergio Micco, director of the National Institute of Human Rights, the resignation “is the chronicle of an announced exit” because in two years, three interior ministers have already resigned and dozens of generals have been retired. “Rozas’s resignation was accepted almost with decorations. What Piñera is doing for all victims of human rights violations is insulting, “said Communist Party MP Camila Vallejo.” The Carabinieri do not need another Rozas, they need an immediate civilian intervention which leads to a real refoundation, “added the leader born in the fire of the student mobilization of 2011.