With the death of six military in key We have witnessed how the narrative to discredit the Armed forces is gaining ground in public debate. Until recently, the discourse of radicals who equated the Armed Forces as an enemy always and in all circumstances fell on infertile ground, but today we have not only seen a mob humiliate them, stone them, force them to cross a river and find their death, but also a discursive load that questions its function and the legitimate use of force in a State of law.
The reports of the Cuarto Poder and Punto Final television programs broadcast on Sunday March 12 show that in Juli The day before the tragedy, a large group of extremists attacked and set fire to the Juli Police Station and the Judicial Branch. From this, the two patrols, whose soldiers They drowned, trying to get from Ilave to Juli as part of a support operation for the agents who were attacked the day before. That is, it was about going to restore the internal order in a place where a large group of protesters had already shown enough violence against public institutions and people.
However, this is not what is counted when talking about this story, because some journalists began to put the reflectors on the orders of the Captain to cross the river, or that the soldiers did not know how to swim. From the situation, the degree and potential of violence They don’t mention much about the day before, and they don’t mention the same images that show how they don’t let the soldiers pass to carry out their duties, and how they force them to go back with stones, threatening them all the time with humiliating expressions and hate speech.
The news that spread tried to romanticize the extremists because there were civilians who saved some soldiers of drowning And certainly there have been admirable people who did it, but it cannot be proven that they were from the group of attackers, nor that they were neighbors who had nothing to do with the violent ones. Be it one or the other, the fact of making the news this was a rude attempt to minimize the responsibility of the violent protesters. The news should be that the Armed forces aimed at restoring internal order in a state of emergency they were attacked and stoned, but this situation has not raised enough alarms, nor does it seem to worry many about its seriousness. The predominant chatter has been to discredit the military, and in the midst of all that we have been experiencing, one does not have to go far to connect and find out who is interested in spreading the sordid vision that the Armed Forces are enemies of the population.
In the midst of so much misinformation, therefore, it is relevant to remember some ideas and principles about the function of the Police and Armed Forces in the control of internal order and the use of force.
To begin with, neither the Armed Forces nor the police are enemies of the citizens as they would have us believe. Your role in situations of violenceand the use of force is limited by international standards of human rights in our ordering. In a Rule of lawthe monopoly of public force belongs to the State.
Now, this use of force by the Police and Armed Forces cannot be arbitrary, on the contrary, it is subject to the Constitutionprinciples, laws and regulations that also find inspiration and support in criteria of the Inter-American and Universal System for the protection of human rights, such as the Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms and the Code of Conduct for officials in charge of enforce the law.
So this view that the Armed Forces or the Police are always the enemy or that they are murderers is really incompatible with a Rule of lawin which their role and the force they exert will always be controlled to be subject to the Constitution and to the respect of human rights. It should always be limited to who holds power and who exercises force. It is known in advance that the use of force implies risks of abuse, errors, crimes, and for this reason, in a rule of law, all guarantees must be given so that those who use force are in a position to carry out a function whose interventions could affect the life and integrity of people. Hence the importance of limits, guarantees, the exceptional and restrictive use of force, and the control that it is exercised without violating human rights.
In this way, those positions that always point to the Police and Armed Forces as enemies of the State are so absurd and contrary to the rule of law. citizenship, such as those who believe that their interventions should not be subject to controls that ensure that human rights are not violated.
Let us remember that, since the first days of February, Fist is in a state of emergency according to the Supreme Decree No. 018-2023-PCM which was established for sixty (60) calendar days, in addition to the departments of Madre de Dios, Cusco, Apurímac, Arequipa, Moquegua and Tacna. In all of them, the National Police maintains control of internal order with the support of the Armed Forces; except in the department of Puno where internal order control is the responsibility of the Armed Forces. The same decree specifies that their actions contemplate the protection of critical national assets and the protection of public or private institutions.
In Legislative Decree No. 1095, which establishes rules for the employment and use of force by the Armed forces in the national territory, it is pointed out that the internal order is “the situation in which the stability and normal functioning of the political-legal institutions of the State are guaranteed. Its maintenance and control demand forecasts and actions that the State must adopt permanently, implicitly carrying the possibility of declaring the regimes of exception provided for in the Political constitution”.
The declaration of the state of emergency in Fist and that the internal order be assumed by the Armed Forces was carried out in accordance with article No. 137 of the Political Constitution, according to which the President of the Republic can decree for a determined period in part of the national territory a state of emergencyin case of disturbance of peace or internal order, or serious circumstances that affect the life of the Nation. And within this power there is an assumption in which the Armed Forces can assume control of the internal order if so ordered by the President of the Republic.
There was already a situation of violence that led to the foundation of the State of emergency, and the two patrols of which six of its members ended up drowning were going to guarantee and protect internal order against extremists who had set fire to a police station and the Judiciary . The Armed forces They went from Ilave to Puno to fulfill a function that the Constitution and the law allow them, and through threats and violence they were prevented from exercising it.
Those patrols they were there in accordance with the rule of law and were not using arbitrary force. Their presence was part of the preventive and dissuasive levels, however, they found an irrational and violent mob that attacked them with stones, degrading insults, and forced them to go back and cross the river.
With this, protection lines have been exceeded Rule of law that they should rather outrage us and put us on alert. The death of the soldiers in key is as serious and sad as the fact that public opinion does not seem to care about the seriousness of such an event, since it cannot be something positive for democracy and the rule of law that is being attacked towards an institution in charge of protecting the internal order of Fistbe overlooked and rather misinformed so much to discredit them.
