A spate of killings in Chile spurred lawmakers to swiftly pass new legislation giving police greater protections. The government said that $1.5bn in additional security spending, along with new laws to combat organized crime and drug trafficking, which were signed last Thursday, will aid the fight against the rising violence.
But human rights groups have said one of the laws, which gives police more leeway to use force when their lives are under threat, could increase police abuses and put more people at risk. Critics have dubbed it the “quick trigger” law.
“We need to change the police so they respect human rights, but we also need to create better conditions to confront crime,” Rodrigo Bustos, executive director of Amnesty International’s Chile branch, told Al Jazeera. Chilean police have for years faced accusations of systematic human rights violations. Violence during 2019 protests prompted major global rights groups, including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN, to call for police reforms.
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