The destroyed mausoleum in the municipality of Lo Espejo in Santiago, this Sunday.@camilaemiliasv (RR SS)
In his June 1 public report, left-wing Chilean President Gabriel Boric announced that among the measures his government would soon take in terms of public order would be to introduce a bill to limit the burials of drug traffickers and attackers , which can last several days in Chile, shoot into the air and set off firecrackers. But there was a second announcement: the destruction of imaginary mausoleums or monuments that families, friends and members of criminal organizations have begun to erect in public places, including places with children’s games.
“Our police forces are making great efforts to contain these events, but it is not enough,” the President said. He also reported that the Undersecretariat for Regional Development would allocate resources to municipalities to “take down all drug memorials, wherever they appear.”
Barely five days have passed since then, and in the early hours of this Monday, June 5, when the government was planning to demolish the first narco-mausoleum, close friends and relatives of Diego Marchant Castro decided to begin demolishing their own mausoleum presented a construction that had the shape of a castle. But that’s not all, because as an obvious challenge to Boric, in the midst of the destruction, they wrote the ironic message: Papp-Bukele [Bukele de mentira], in reference to the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, who pursues a tough and questionable policy against organized crime. They also left two more scratches, one that read, “Politics don’t end a family’s pain,” and another that said, “Give the money back to the state.”
Marchant Castro was a young criminal who was shot in the back at the age of 20 during a reckoning between rival gangs. The monument appeared surprisingly in 2021 in Salvador Allende Square, within the José María Caro population in the municipality of Lo Espejo, in the southern part of Santiago, capital of Chile. It was an approximately 25-square-meter building with lights inside, black and white ceramic flooring on the floor, two yellow benches, and a life-size white ceramic dog. There were security cameras outside and the walls were painted in the shape of bricks. On the front, on a large glass door that remained closed, some handwritten letters commemorated Dieguito, who was also honored with a full-length mural commemorating him. The young man was the son of Francisco Marchant, the leader of a clan associated with drug trafficking.
Lo Espejo would be the first municipality where one of these structures would be demolished. Interior Minister Carolina Tohá brought it up after the President’s public report. These are measures that can be explained by the fact that Chile is going through a security crisis that has caused the homicide rate to rise from 3.6 to 7 points in six years, according to prosecutor Ángel Valencia, and a large part of the Criminal offenses are committed with the use of firearms as their illegal possession increases.
Boric commissioned his government’s undersecretary for social development, headed by Nicolás Cataldo, to draw up a register of drug memorials, of which preliminary estimates suggest there could be as many as twenty in the metropolitan area. In addition, Cataldo will provide resources to various communities across the country to begin demolition, installing lighting, new furniture, children’s games, and restoring the plazas. “The focus is on drug culture and how we’re pushing back on this public space thing,” Cataldo said over the weekend.
After learning that the castle had been demolished by the Marchant clan, Cataldo said the fact was “surprising, but not necessarily a bad thing”. “There’s a reaction to the President’s announcement, to the decision to restore public space, and if that can be less complex, less traumatic and more expeditious, that’s always welcome.”
Lo Espejo Mayor Javiera Reyes described the monument as “a symbol of fear”. “When the same press asks the neighbors for their opinion, they don’t dare to comment because they don’t want to say publicly that they don’t agree with the existence of such structures,” Reyes told local radio.
The narco wakes up
Another June 1 announcement by Boric was a bill restricting funerals for drug dealers. It is an initiative that comes on top of two other projects tabled in March and May this year by parliamentarians from different political sectors. It’s not a new phenomenon in Chile, but it’s becoming more common and violence is on the rise. In 2019, for example, former President Sebastián Piñera of the moderate right drew up a protocol to implement it.
“In the case of funerals where the gangs intimidate and paralyze the communities, we will introduce a bill to restrict these practices, limiting, among other things, the days of the wake and the route of the processions.” intimidate and hurt the neighborhood no matter how much they feel about the loss of a loved one,” Boric said in his public report.
According to the Carabineros, as of May 16, 2023, 153 drug-related offenses were recorded in the country, and 18% of them involved fireworks. During the implementation, some schools had to stop teaching for fear and safety reasons. One of the last public cases occurred in Valparaíso, a town about 107 kilometers from Santiago, in late March, when fifteen colleges and universities suspended their activities because of one of these memorial services.