Chile's Public Security Minister Trinidad Steinert and Undersecretary Andrés Jouannet missed a key Senate Finance Commission session on modernizing Carabineros, forcing its suspension. The incident drew criticism from both opposition and government lawmakers. A Segpres minister apologized for the coordination failure instead.
The Senate Finance Commission, chaired by UDI Senator Javier Macaya, suspended a session aimed at advancing the bill to modernize Carabineros, a priority initiative of the executive. Lawmakers deemed the absence of Public Security Ministry's top officials, Minister Trinidad Steinert and Undersecretary Andrés Jouannet, improper and chose not to proceed.
Instead, General Secretariat of the Presidency Minister José García attended and stated: “We had a lack of coordination and I reiterate my apologies to the commission.” At the same time, Steinert was in Santiago with President José Antonio Kast at an event in the Central Criminalistics Laboratory of the PDI alongside its director, Eduardo Cerna.
Criticism came from across the aisle. Macaya called it “lamentable,” saying: “it is very regrettable that no one from the Ministry of Security showed up.” Independent Senator Rodolfo Carter labeled it an “unpresentable error,” adding: “It ruins the whole narrative” and “this is not an accident, this is sloppiness.”
UDI Deputy Guillermo Ramírez blamed coordination failures: “The mistake was that the ministry did not send a replacement.” The episode adds to prior questions about Steinert's management, such as her role in the exit of retired PDI prefect Consuelo Peña, amid security as a core pillar of President Kast's government.
