A shooting at Lo Valledora, Chile’s main fruit and vegetable supply market, left three people injured in the capital this Monday and sparked heated debate over the market’s decision to deny entry to people without a Chilean identity card.

During a police procedure, a woman took a gun from a security guard at a privately owned facility located in the municipality of Pedro Aguirre Cerda, on the outskirts of Santiago, and fired several times, injuring three people outside the city. risk to life.

According to Chilean police, the woman has Chilean citizenship and has a history of stealing from a supermarket and assaulting other police officers.

The events were broadcast by TVN:

“This is absolutely unacceptable and we cannot downplay the significance (…) Those who have such views, those who commit this kind of crime, must know that we will catch them and they will have to answer to justice,” said President Gabriel Borich at an official event.

The police checks, which the 54-year-old detainee intended to skip, are part of a new and controversial strategy adopted by management of the wholesale fruit and vegetable market to combat insecurity, which includes an obligation to present a Chilean ID card to enter the premises. room.

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This measure was criticized by representatives of different sectors, considering it “discriminatory” since it affects many migrants who are in the process of regularization, who go to the market to buy and then sell at various fairs and enterprises in the capital.

“This is the reality faced by entrepreneurs, workers and citizens who visit such fairs every day. The man who shot was a traveling trader with a criminal record, so it is essential that access is controlled,” said National Multigremial, one of Chile’s main employers’ associations.

The shooting was broadcast live on most television channels (one of the wounded was a Chilivision cameraman) and renewed debate about the security crisis that Chile has been experiencing for several years.

Spokeswoman Camila Vallejo condemned the events.

EFE