Foundation and First Years of Operation of the Carabineros de Chile: Political Adjustments of a Discourse Oriented Towards Efficiency and Institutional Unity (1927-1931)

Abstract

The police fusion of 1927, by the law No. 2.484, created Carabineros de Chile, an institution that until now is in charge of public order and security in the national territory.

This new chilean police force was created in the context of the military regime of Carlos Ibáñez del Campo, who concentrated power and increased political repression. Since then, the police discourses about improvement were displaced by the political urgencies. In this article, we analyze the first four years of the Carabineros de Chile, emphasizing the concepts of efficiency and police unity as discursive support for the police reform.