It is absolutely false that in Chile a chicken is punished with five years in prison.This crime is within what is known as abigeato whose penalties harden a couple of year ago, due to the increase in allegations of animals such as horses, cattle, pigs and goats, mainly.
However, there are few people who believe that is the sanction associated with the chicken.And this demonstrates not only how easy it is for many Chileans to believe in this type of myths, but that ignorance about laws is such a complicated issue, as little addressed despite the fact that according to our legislation the ignorance of a ignorance of alaw.
That is, no one can defend themselves from a private or monetary criminal sanction arguing that "I did not know it was a crime."
To the lack of interest in informing about the legislation, today in the middle of the pandemic that has affected us for about a year and a half, we must add that historically, every time it has been crossed by severe economic or social crises, thePeople begin to incur unusual crimes and that, sometimes, neither lawyers nor judges are very clear how to address them.
The most at hand was the controversial persecution by article 318 of the sanitary code, a crime never before pursued in the country and that came out of its coffin only for the risks of contagion of Coronavirus.For this reason, the confused judicial system departed by sanctioning whoever was arrested circulating without permission in quarantines or touches, until the Supreme Court resolved that, unless it was reliably proven that there was a risk of infection, that single conduct was not subject toCriminal sanction.And he stopped chasing the Prosecutor's Office.
And it is in the midst of this state of exception that other activities began to become fashionable that, not even all lawyers know, they are illegal.
As an example are the raffles of personal items for their own benefit;the sale of alcohols without patent by means of social networks;Funny by social networks or the malicious alteration of prices of essential products (taking advantage of the circumstances of the moment), as seen with the articles for construction, masks or alcogel.All of them are crimes.
80% is not pursued
The point is chase?And the answer is "little and nothing."
Moreover, according to Judge Claudia Montero, president of the Oral Criminal Court of Chillán, “I would say that of the total crimes described and persecuted by our Criminal Procedure Code, no more than 20 percent become prosecuted.In part this is due to the fact that our code dates from the nineteenth century with the exception that with the passage of time has been making modifications, but without a doubt that it is necessary to modernize it because we are also facing crimes that did not exist before. ”
Along the same lines, the criminal lawyer Ricardo Robles points out that “generally as the Public Ministry pursues the crimes of greater social connotation such as robberies, homicides, violations, corruption crimes or drug trafficking, people tend toBe aware that these actions are punishable.But there are many others that people simply ignore that they are prohibited because they are almost either pursued or because they do not associate them with criminal actions.Our Criminal Code has as 500 articles, and is usually litigated by 20 or 25 percent of them. ”
As a statistic, this year the crimes that have generated a hearing in the Chillán Guarantee Court are representative of only 58 types.
To the archi, known violent, sexual, drug or robberies crimes are added those related to the transit law, scams, fraud, computer crimes, checkered checks, weapon bearing, animal abuse, causing fires, hiding identity,hide patent plates and domestic violence.
However, there are others who, as advocated by lawyer Robles, people ignore that they are sanctioned acts.
And within a very long list, at least in Chillán there is notice that of not giving notice of a traffic accident (it is mandatory to notify the emergency units that an accident occurred);Thefts of finding, that is, to find objects of value on public roads and leave them for themselves;and the so-called crime against the privacy of conversations, so the law- theory- sanctions those who listenof the affected).
It also appears within these little known crimes, but that have reached local courts, the crime of supplanting the identity of another person online, and domestic dissension, which sanctions couples, marriages or relatives who quarrel with notorious scandal insideof their homes.
“If the experience is reviewed, we realize that it is always believed that by promulgating laws or regulations, in the case of municipalities, certain unwanted behaviors will end.That is not only a mistake, but also does not contemplate a fundamental factor as the real audit capacity that is counted, ”adds Robles.
As an example, he quotes the regulations created in 2019 to install chips in dogs, of which no one took over, so that some municipalities of Ñuble did not even arrive the guns to review their compliance.
They appear in crises
Many people surprised that through social networks and even in portals and television news spaces it would be announced that there were those who were raffling their houses, some on the beach and others even with Jacuzzi.
The number was sold on many occasions in just one thousand pesos, and these examples were observed in cities such as the Quisco, Ovalle, Pucón, La Serena, Punitaqui or Chimbarongo.
Mechanics would be repeated in countless examples throughout the country.Today it is possible to find raffles of musical instruments, high -end cell phones, motorcycles, bicycles, cars and a long etcetera.
And without a doubt one of the most controversial is the case of a young Chimbarongo musician who raffled his middle class bonus that the government delivered to those who had been affected by the health crisis, which obtained $ 900 thousand pesos.
Although many celebrated the "ingenuity" of the bidders, the criminal lawyer Rodrigo Vera Lama clarifies that "those are made constitute crimes.The law is clear and says that the raffles can only be authorized by the President of the Republic and then the mayors were authorized to allow them, but only for charity purposes, not for profit or personal benefits, as in these cases. ”
For this reason, the raffles are usually in charge of neighborhood boards, clubs, social organizations and other entities with legal personality that have the purpose of helping a social cause.Nothing more.
"But here we find a more serious fact and that demonstrates the level of ignorance that exists even among lawyers," says Vera Lama.
The allusion indicates that many of those who raffle their property for personal benefit, established the bases before a notary to give guarantees of the transparency of the raffle.
“And it turns out that it is not understood as a notary, which by law must be a lawyer, lends itself to that.If the competent authorities decided to control these irregularities, all those notaries should end up under summary.However, that has happened, because I insist, almost no one was aware that raffles in Chile are illegal, ”he concluded.
Another "fashionable" crime is selling alcohol on social networks.
In Chillán there are already dozens of Instagram accounts that also offer 24/7 home cast, that is, they not only sell alcohol without having patents to do so, but also, they will leave it to the house there is or notcurfew.
Nor was the increase with geometric proportions of the prices of the alcogel, the masks, the electrical and surgical gloves observed, a state of emergency was decreed by the presence of the COVID 19 in the country.
"This for no reason was part of what we can consider opportunities for free, but rightly was a crime," says Ricardo Robles.
The lawyer highlights as another example the price that is observed today in the construction materials and recalls that “there were other similar cases, previously in the country, for example for the Government of (Salvador) Allende it was tried to pursue the crime of hoarding,which is currently in disuse even though it still exists. ”
Robles, who is currently working on a presentation with respect to this crime of illegal pricing alteration, states that only when a case of those acquires public and notorious relevance, it is only necessary to pursue it, overlooking many other examples that could have existed, but with no media impact.
By way of conclusion, Judge Claudia Montero observes that “in general this type of crime, which is committed more due to ignorance of the law than by a mood to commit crimes, arise when they go through drastic periods of economic crises or any other typebut that affect the individual or family economy. ”
The judge goes further in her analysis and anticipates that "if many of those crimes would reach courts, they would end up in fines or even argue that it was acted by a state of necessity, which is also contemplated by law."
We are all judges
From the beginning of the pandemic, some crimes that until then were constantly persecuted, plainly ceased to be.Among them the industrial property, or the sale of counterfeit products, such as clothing and shoes that simulate being of international prestige brands and that are noticed in many stores in the center of Chillán.
The point is that, as with the illegal "entrepreneurs" online, these activities have the support of a part of society, which predicts a fury reaction against the authorities that dose to apply the law.
“People are willing to make citizen arrests against a spear, but on the contrary, those same people may defend the one who sells stolen things or pirates online.Such as those who offer cable channel decoders to ten Lucas, ”warns the sociologist Juan Cristóbal Torres.
The professional points to a complex social reality as the lack of civic education of the bulk of the community.“There is enormous confusion for them, because if on the one hand they do not know the laws, they do not know that the authorities and judges must act according to the legal framework that exists, and not only guided by common sense.So, beyond demanding justice, people expect the sanctions that each one expect to apply, ”he adds.
It is then in cyberspace where this "Internet Judge" applauds funas, sale of stolen items, offers to falsify driver's licenses, seeks to buy pets from individuals (also prohibited) and attacks the authorities when you sanction them.But he gets angry and demands penalties that are neither in the procedural code when he is affected.
“The idea of the government is to start educational campaigns for people who commit crimes in cyberspace seem different from those that commit crimes in the street.But that must be identified and understand that they also damage society, ”said the Regional Public Security Coordinator Alan Ibáñez.
