“If the President believes that there is terrorism, but that the law is not effective, what he has to do is modify the law,” said the head of the RN bench, Andrés Longton. “Terrorism is more complex and has characteristics that make it different from other crimes,” said congresswoman Sofía Cid.
The deputy bench of Renovación Nacional (RN) is going to present a project to repeal the criticized < strong>Anti-terrorism Law, with the aim of having criminal legislation that can clarify the facts and punish them efficiently.
The initiative consists of three chapters. The first “establishes the crimes and offenses of a terrorist nature and establishes their sanctions”, while the second addresses the procedural aspect, “which contemplates special measures and procedures for the investigation of terrorist offences”.
The third, meanwhile, it fully repeals Law 18,314, called the “Anti-Terrorism Law”.
Let us remember that even president Gabriel Boric himself questioned the legislation, acknowledging that “it has brought terrible results”.
Changes in the legislation: includes crimes and increases detention times
The initiative presented by RN contemplates that crimes such as kidnapping, homicide, injuries, torture, arson crimes, those crimes contemplated in the Arms Control Law and computer crimes, among others, are considered terrorist.
The latter, when “they undermine or destroy the democratic institutional order. Or they seriously disturb public order or cause widespread fear in the population of being a victim of crimes of the same kind or of loss or deprivation of fundamental rights.”
As for the procedural aspect, he asks to increase the detention period up to five days; provide a special investigation period of up to 3 years; secrecy of the investigation for an extraordinary term; collaboration of public and auxiliary organizations of the administration of justice in the delivery of records; interception of communications and correspondence; in addition to the possibility of carrying out procedures abroad through the corresponding consular instances.
In this way, the initiative would also seek to unblock the problems that are being generated between the ruling party and the opposition, regarding this law, where it would not seek to prove the intention of the accused, as is currently the case.
Likewise, it is expected that the initiative will allow unblocking the discussions in order to advance in the National Security Agreement proposed by the Minister of the Interior, Carolina Tohá.
RN deputies defended the proposal to replace Anti-terrorism Law
Andrés Longton, head of the Bancada de RN, affirmed that “if the President believes that there is terrorism, but that the law is not effective, what he has to do is modify the law and not renounce a tool that all modern democracies have and that serves to protect life in society.”
Longton explained that the proposal entered by the Bancada “collects initiatives that have been the subject of legislative debate in the past.” In this sense, he stressed that “we continue with the idea of contributing and not just criticizing, although we often do not find answers in an extremely ideological government.”
Meanwhile, the deputy head of Bank, deputy Sofía Cid, pointed to the statements of the Minister(s) of the Interior, Manuel Monsalve, who assured that he did not know what the objective of RN is in presenting the Bill.
In this regard, Cid He maintained that the authority’s opinion “is respectable, but there are millions of Chileans who do not share it. Terrorism and organized crime are not the same, and therefore a wide range of legal and institutional tools are required to deal with both phenomena.”
The Copiapó parliamentarian valued the government’s intention “To work on organized crime law, but it’s not enough. Terrorism is more complex and has characteristics that make it different from other crimes. Even today it can be said that terrorism could be carried out by a single person, the lone wolf.”