The regulations are intended to improve criminal prosecutions, strengthen institutions and increase crime prevention. A total of 31 initiatives must be analyzed and voted on, some immediately and others throughout the year.

Among the bills are: a law on economic crimes and others that sanction preparatory acts of assassination and the possession of cell phones in prisons. There are also plans to make changes to the migration and foreigners law and create a Ministry of Public Security.

However, the deputy of the Humanist Action party Tomás Hirsch called to review each bill and add in all the necessary insertions for them to be effective “because the problem of drug trafficking and crime is not going to be solved with 50, 100 or 300 bills”.

Hirsch warned that the 31 initiatives must each be analyzed on their merits, to guarantee that “Chile continues to be a country of peace and a rule of law, not a police state.”

Parallel to the debate in Congress, the Government announced the implementation of the Streets without Violence plan in 45 communes where violent crimes, drug trafficking, the presence of weapons, neighborhood deterioration and criminal impunity have risen.

The program will begin this April in the center of the capital, where police non-commissioned officer Daniel Palma was recently murdered, and will continue in May in other municipalities in the Santiago Metropolitan Region and the rest of the country.

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