The regional governor of Antofagasta, Ricardo Díaz, addressed the fatal stabbing attack carried out by a student from the Colegio Instituto Obispo Silva Lezaeta in Calama and warned that the region lacks a specialized hospital to treat young individuals with violent profiles. In an interview with El Diario de Cooperativa, the governor alerted that the region does not have the tools to prevent or intervene promptly in such situations, despite recent efforts. "We have many cases of violent youths that the Prosecutor's Office demands be hospitalized, and the truth is that we do not have a forensic hospital where we can treat these cases in a way that allows us to confront this situation," the governor reported.
"Yesterday, Carabineros informed us about the number of school violence situations they have had to address. So, we are clearly in a mental health crisis, but since it is a silent crisis that appears in episodic acts, we are not giving it the necessary attention," he asserted. In this regard, Díaz emphasized that more specialists are needed in Antofagasta because "Chilean doctors do not want to come live in this region.
That is why we have promoted training programs; we are financing the psychiatry career from the Regional Government, but it is not enough. " Finally, the regional authority referred to the potential installation of metal detectors in schools, following the announcement made by the Government: "Installing this type of measure, while visually appealing, comes from a perspective that has a very punitive discourse of increasing penalties and imposing more sanctions," he pointed out. "But that measure is useless if we do not have a much deeper engagement with the community," he concluded.