Toha headed an urgent meeting of the security cabinet, made up of the Interior Ministry, the high commands of the Police Corps, the Investigative Police (PDI), the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the presidential delegate in the Metropolitan Region, Gonzalo Duran.

The meeting’s goals was to design a plan to tackle crime, which in the last four days has left 18 deaths in the country, 17 of them in the capital, including four teenagers from 13 to 17 years old.

At the end of the encounter, Toha informed that the activity in police stations and barracks will be reorganized in order to make available a greater number of personnel in the most sensitive areas of the capital.

The authority said there will be a reinforcement of personnel and as part of this, 500 police officers who are about to finish their training will remain in the Metropolitan Region.

Likewise, a joint task force will be created between the police and the PDI, with the support of the National Prosecutor’s Office, related to intelligence activities. The vice president pointed out that the capacities for the control and requisitioning of weapons in circulation in the streets will be improved.

Meanwhile, the ousted Interior Minister Manuel Monsalve noted that the Investigation Police will design a strategy to conduct migratory controls in the capital, as it is done with the verification of citizens’ identity.

On Wednesday, the Socialist Party senator and former Chilean Foreign Minister Jose Miguel Insulza called on the Government to decree a state of siege in the metropolitan area due to the homicides.

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