(Bloomberg) -- Chile’s Congress gave its final approval to a bill that creates a Public Security Ministry, handing President Gabriel Boric a win as his government steps up efforts to combat crime.
The country’s lower house approved the legislation on Wednesday with 91 votes in favor, 28 against and 6 abstentions. The Senate had given its definitive backing late on Tuesday.
Chileans are being riled by crime alongside the arrival of undocumented migrants in one of Latin America’s richest nations. Those woes have consumed Boric’s administration, which is now shifting priorities and trying to build a legacy of fighting violence and drugs over the platform of social security that the leftist head of state had initially campaigned on.
“The Public Security Ministry will strengthen the capacity of the state to face a complex, dynamic, increasingly specialized issue,” Interior Minister Carolina Toha said as the bill was being debated on Wednesday. “This is not ‘the response’ but its a very important part of the response.”
This new ministry’s goal will be to align the different enforcement agencies, such as the local and investigations police, around a common security strategy. The institution will have dedicated teams in each region of the country, led by a regional ministerial secretary, and will be focused on security tasks, with the power to implement specific measures for each location.
The proposal was originally sent to Congress in 2021 under the government of former President Sebastian Pinera. It was subsequently modified by Boric’s administration.
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