Parisi slams Kast for not deploying military to fight crime

Franco Parisi, leader of the Party of the People (PDG), has sharply criticized President Gabriel Boric for failing to deploy the military to address Chile's escalating crime crisis. Parisi contends that Boric reneged on a campaign promise to bring soldiers onto the streets to bolster public security.

The controversy gained traction following the murder of a 12-year-old boy during a carjacking in San Bernardo, an incident that has amplified calls for stronger security measures. Parisi questioned Boric's reluctance, suggesting it could be due to a fear of the military's potential overreach or an unwillingness to implement easy, populist solutions.

“

The President Kast does not bring the military to the street, as he promised and as they have asked him to.

Parisi argued that while deploying the military might seem like a quick fix, it is not a sustainable institutional solution. He implied that Boric's hesitation might also be linked to concerns about the military's command structure and potential political influence, suggesting the President is caught between public demand and institutional complexities.

“

Every time citizens ask more for the Armed Forces to go out into the street, but with what tools? Of course, we could decree a state of emergency in different areas of the country to justify the departure of the Armed Forces, but that is not the institutional solution for a country. The easy solution, the populist solution, is to ask for the Armed Forces in the street, anywhere.