Public Security Minister Martín Arrau responded this Wednesday to former ministers Carolina Tohá and Luis Cordero. Both had questioned the Rules on the Use of Force (RUF) bill, which sets out when and how police can use physical force. Arrau described that criticism as "perhaps somewhat petty".
According to CNN Chile, the minister made his remarks in an interview with EmolTV. Tohá and Cordero served as ministers during Gabriel Boric's government.
The controversy began with a letter both published on Sunday in El Mercurio. In it, they argued that "the state is the only entity that can legitimately exercise force" and that, when physical force is required, that privilege belongs to law enforcement.
The former ministers supported giving the rules the force of law. "Having those rules enshrined in law rather than in a simple administrative circular is a need we share," they wrote, according to Emol. However, they warned that "the approved text has serious problems that undermine that certainty". The available sources do not specify what those problems are.
Arrau responded that this position "means failing to understand the reality the country is facing". He added that Chile needs police with "extremely clear" rules on the use of force, because police officers face more violent and more heavily armed criminals.
The minister also took aim at the previous government. He recalled that crime and homicides reached record levels between 2022 and 2023, when Tohá and Cordero were in office. "They know what the police are up against. And so they themselves introduce a bill on rules for the use of force," he said.
That fact explains the tone of the clash. The initiative originated under the Boric administration and is now moving forward under the current government. Arrau maintained that his critics "should be happy because today that bill is seeing the light of day under our government, and that is how politics works".
For the minister, the law benefits two groups. In his view, police will have "greater peace of mind when defending the civilian population", and citizens will have "greater clarity about how security forces use force". The sources do not report the bill's next legislative step or whether Tohá and Cordero responded to Arrau.
