The fall of Rozas: The eight acts that sealed the departure of the director general

If a date serves to mark the before and after in the history of the Carabineros, that would be March 2017. Among authorities, legislators and experts, there is consensus that it was there when the institutional crisis took shape through the detection of a millionaire institutional fraud, which involved more than 130 officials, including officers and NCOs, from the uniformed police.

What followed exacerbated the crisis: in October 2017 was Operation Hurricane, which ended the prosecution investigating falsified evidence to indict Mapuche community members in violence; In November 2018, an operation in La Araucanía ended in the murder – and an attempt to cover up the incident – of community member Camilo Catrillanca, and in October 2019, serious questions arose about the actions of the police during the social outbreak, with excessive use of force, misuse of non-lethal weapons and accusations of human rights violations, which accumulated more than 2,300 complaints against police officers and 35 legal actions against the general director Mario Rozas.

Thus, between October 18, 2019 and November of this year, the image of the police fell drastically, the street demonstrations became more acute and Congress repeatedly demanded the removal of the highest police authority. What milestones marked the passage of General Mario Rozas in command of the uniformed police? Third analyzed part of the 696 days of Rozas at the head of the 50 thousand police officers of the institution and the main events that sealed the break between the high official and the government, which ended with his departure on the morning of November 19.

These were the main milestones that marked the management of the now former police chief.

The reports from international organizations were critical. While the NGO Human rights observer It warned in its November 2019 report – just weeks after the start of the social outbreak – the existence of “serious human rights violations.” that included “excessive use of force against protesters, bystanders and serious abuses in arrests”, a report prepared by the United Nations, published in December of the same year, concluded that there had been “Well-founded reasons to maintain that, as of October 18 (2019), there has been a high number of serious violations of human rights”.

Complaints about police excesses and the indiscriminate use of riot guns and gas-throwing carbines during demonstrations and street incidents have been increasing since October 2019. Shortly after, the matter had become a focus of concern for human rights organizations, and opened a A source of tension between the government and the Carabineros High Command, which was required to respond to the accusations made by international observers.

Thus, on December 5, the police responded to the questions. He did it in 32 pages, where he refuted the figures of injuries, the excessive use of force and the accusations of sexual abuse directed against uniformed personnel. In parallel, in Chile, it was the National Institute of Human Rights (INDH) that filed legal actions to force an investigation against those injured and affected by the demonstrations. Not only because of illegal detentions or reports of police excesses, but also because of the ocular injuries that affected 163 people (21 of them with a burst of the eyeball and 32 with loss of vision due to irreversible ocular trauma). In this way, the agency presented a total of 2,520 complaints, of which 2,340 (92.8%) pointed to inappropriate action by the police. Of the total legal action, 35 were directed against the now general (R) Mario Rozas.

During the social outbreak, the prosecution received 8,827 complaints for crimes committed by State agents, of which there are 4,681 current causes. From the universe of cases, there are 75 officials formalized for crimes related to human rights violations., of which 25 are in preventive detention and only one has been convicted.

Cases of Gustavo Gatica Villarroel (22) and Fabiola Campillai Rojas (36) These are the most serious acts charged against the Carabineros for misuse of riot control weapons during the demonstrations last year. With just 18 days apart, Gatica and Campillai lost their sight due to shots with police weapons: while the former was blinded by a direct shot to the face with a riot gun, on November 8 in downtown Santiago, Fabiola Campillai lost his sight to a tear gas canister that hit him directly in his head on his way to work. That was on November 26. Both investigations ended with formalized police officers: Commander Claudio Crespo, for Gatica’s injuries, and Captain Patricio Maturana, for the case of Fabiola Campillai.

The complaints of excessive use of anti-riot weapons forced General Rozas to change the protocols for the use of these elements. Especially in the use of pellets, which, according a study by the University of ChileThey consisted of only 20% rubber and the rest were metals or minerals of high hardness. An ammunition capable of causing serious injuries.

Between September 9 and 11, notifications began to arrive to each of the six active generals – plus one in retirement – of summaries and accusations made by the Comptroller for a series of alleged administrative irregularities, many of them related to command responsibility, linked to public order actions in the context of the social crisis.

The action was directed towards Generals Jorge Valenzuela, national director of Support for Police Operations; Mauricio Rodríguez, head of the Metropolitan Area; Enrique Bassaletti, head of the Santiago East Zone; Enrique Monrás, head of the Santiago Oeste Zone; Hugo Zenteno, head of the Valparaíso Zone; Jean Camus, Director of Logistics, and Jorge Ávila, now retired and former Chief of Special Forces. Of them, Valenzuela was called into retirement.

The case “shook” the high command of the institution and in some cases the struggle was transferred to the Supreme Court, which rejected the resources of the officers and gave the comptroller the green light to investigate the uniformed in a process that is still open and involves Now to five active generals.

There were two weeks left until one year had passed since the social outbreak. Carabineros had an operational plan in mind to avoid any kind of confrontation between the police and the protesters. In the long run, this happened, and during the day of October 18 there were no serious injuries. When there were, it was that afternoon of October 2.

That day, the carabinero Sebastian Zamora was detained by the PDI, after the prosecutor Ximena Chong issue an arrest warrant for the crime of attempted homicide, as he was accused of having wanted to intentionally throw a minor under 16 years from the Pío Nono Bridge towards the Mapocho River. The defense of the policeman, and also the generals of the Carabineros before the Chamber, was that there was no intention and it was a shock when trying to apprehend the young man.

The case brought back the internal ghosts of the policemen. Carabinero Zamora was formalized and notified of his discharge for not reporting the use of a portable camera, which made a new enemy appear in the Carabineros: internal criticism of the command, since the NCOs felt that they were leaving them alone.

The increase in the facts of violence in the so-called Mapuche conflict zone, which focuses mainly on the Biobío and La Araucanía regions, was worth harsh criticism to the High Command of the Carabineros, led by the then general director Mario Rozas.

With a total of six people died due to acts of rural violence only during 2020 -among them workers, parceleros and a carabinero-, the police and the Public Ministry have not yet managed to carry out arrests and formalizations of those responsible, a fact that has generated harsh criticism from the unions and associations of both regions for the actions of the police and the limited results of the strategy adopted by the government to face this situation.

In addition to the homicides in the area, there are records of armed groups committing crimes, sometimes in broad daylight. Likewise, the burning of trucks, machinery and other attacks on forestry and agricultural companies have been one of the main sources of criticism of the preventive and intelligence work of the Carabineros.

It worsened with the case of the Pío Nono Bridge, but the tension came from before due to the case of Gustavo Gatica. General Rozas was not happy with the public actions of the PDI and the prosecution. First, it bothered him that the The arrest of Commander Claudio Crespo, accused of the injury to Gatica, has been in the media. Her discomfort made her see the government. And then, he pointed to the prosecution, considering that there was a “haste” in cases against uniformed men, and not in cases of injuries to police officers. This tension, moreover, It escalated when detectives controlled an officer near the home of prosecutor Ximena Chong, and then his data was leaked.

These situations were undermining the relations between the institutions. And recent statements by the national inspector, Jorge AbbottOn October 9, they did not help to rebuild them: “Carabineros must be respectful of the fundamental rights of the people (…). There is a culture within the institution that is very complex ”.

The tribute was made through the general order No. 2787 of the institution of August 13, signed by the highest authority of the Carabineros, General Mario Rozas, who gave the name of Rodolfo Stange to the Academy of Police Sciencess. The case opened an unexpected flank in the government, as the opposition, and also the ruling party, immediately began to question him for giving him the name of the former general of the Military Junta.

The government ordered Rozas to reverse the decision, and the director general reversed his measure. In La Moneda they cataloged the event as a “Shot in the legs”, since the institution had not made news lately, and the Stange happened. Finally, the Carabineros closed the matter through a statement, where they explained that a consultation process would begin within the institution to find a name to give the academy.

It was the last procedure that targeted Carabineros and, at the same time, the one that sealed the departure of General Director Mario Rozas, due to the seriousness of the incident. The police intervention and subsequent shooting of two minors in the collaborating home of Sename Carlos Macera, of the Talcahuano commune, marked a definitive break in the relationship between the police authority and President Sebastián Piñera.

On Wednesday, shortly before the incident that ended with a police officer detained by the PDI, the Head of State had his participation scheduled to meet with the new police high command.

However, the repercussion of the fact – which left teenagers hospitalized with gunshot wounds in his legs and a policeman with a broken arm – he changed the President’s plans, who chose to withdraw from the activity, after asking the now former police chief to “Clarify the truth in a full and timely manner.”