{"id":78059,"date":"2025-12-16T14:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=78059"},"modified":"2025-12-16T14:09:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T22:09:08","slug":"chiles-new-president-promises-iron-fist-for-immigrants","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=78059","title":{"rendered":"Chile\u2019s New President Promises \u2018Iron Fist\u2019 for Immigrants"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By<\/span>Peter Schurmann<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Chilean police monitor the streets in downtown Santiago. Security and fears of crime were a deciding factor in elections here Dec 14. (Credit: Manuel Ortiz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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SANTIAGO, Chile\u2013Standing on a corner in downtown Santiago, the afternoon heat gleaming off the skyscrapers overhead, a man approaches. He\u2019s middle aged, in stained khakis and a worn tee. \u201cWhere are you from,\u201d he asks, offering a thumbs up as we tell him.<\/p>\n

Mexico and the U.S. \u201cGood,\u201d he says in Spanish, adding, \u201cVenezuelans, bad.\u201d He then positions his arms as if pointing a rifle skyward and barks out, \u201cKast will get rid of them.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Venezuelans,\u00a0Los Venezolanos<\/em>, the name itself carries a certain stigma here, spoken almost as an epithet to convey the disdain and frustration of Chileans exasperated by a sense of rising insecurity and decreasing opportunity.<\/p>\n

On Dec. 14, Chileans elected the far-right candidate and former lawmaker Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast, an avowed champion of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet. Thanks to a recently passed law making voting obligatory in Chile, he takes office as the president with the highest vote count in Chile\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

Kast, whose father was a member of Hitler\u2019s Nazi Party in his native Germany and an officer in the Third Reich\u2019s military, has torn a page from the Trump playbook, promising to expel from the country millions of newly-arrived immigrants\u2014many from Venezuela, others from Colombia and Haiti\u2014upon taking office.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most successful year for expulsions will be 2026, after we take over the government,\u201d promised Kast in a recent debate with his rival, Jeanette Jara of the Communist Party. Jara served as the Minister of Labor under the outgoing president, Gabriel Boric.<\/p>\n

Chile has experienced a massive influx of immigrants, with the country\u2019s foreign-born population doubling over the past five years, from just above 4% to nearly 9% in 2025. And while crime statistics have remained relatively stable\u2014indeed, Chile is one of the safest countries in Latin America\u2014many here insist they\u00a0feel<\/em>\u00a0less secure.<\/p>\n

An\u00a0Ipsos poll<\/a>\u00a0in October found 63% of respondents citing safety and security as among voters\u2019 top priorities, higher than in Mexico and Colombia, despite homicide rates in these countries being four-times higher than in Chile.<\/p>\n

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Rodrigo, a cab driver in Santiago for the last 26 years, says security in the country has deteriorated. Like many Chileans, he is quick to point to the arrival of migrants from Venezuela as a leading cause. (Credit: Manuel Ortiz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThey burned him alive,\u201d says our cab driver, Rodrigo (who asked we only use his first name), describing a recent attack that targeted a family in a working-class suburb outside the capital. \u201cThat never used to happen here,\u201d he adds. Asked if the culprits were Venezuelans, he admits he doesn\u2019t know, before pivoting to Tren del Aragua,<\/em>\u00a0the Venezuelan crime syndicate at the center of geopolitical stirrings from DC to Santiago.<\/p>\n

President Trump has all but declared war on the group, citing its presence in U.S. cities as a basis for draconian deportation policies. He has also tied it to Venezuelan autocrat Nicolas Maduro as justification for what looks increasingly like a campaign aimed at regime change.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday, Venezuelans are almost a third of all legally registered foreigners living in Chile,\u201d says Professor Hugo Fruhling, founder of the Center for the Study of Public Security at the University of Chile. \u201cMany cases of violence have been attributed to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to Fruhling, an expert on public security issues across Latin America, early waves of migrants from Venezuela and neighboring countries starting a decade ago were wealthier and better educated. More recent arrivals, he says, are generally poorer, with fewer means to sustain themselves and their families.<\/p>\n

Their arrival, beginning around the time of the Covid-19 pandemic, coincided with a period of anemic economic growth in Chile and a shortage of available housing. Many fell into the shadows as a result.<\/p>\n

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Professor Hugo Fruhling, founder of the Center for the Study of Public Security at the University of Chile. (Credit: Manuel Ortiz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cIt is not only that some of them could be related to criminal groups in their own countries,\u201d explains Fruhling, \u201cbut the fact is that it is difficult for many of them to live via legitimate means here.\u201d<\/p>\n

One result of all this has been the emergence of\u00a0campamentos<\/em>, illegal settlements across Santiago and other parts of the country, communities typically governed by internal forms of self-rule and where police presence is minimal if not completely absent. Many are populated almost entirely by immigrants.<\/p>\n

Just two days after the election, officials in Maip\u00fa, located on the southwest extremes of Santiago, announced the\u00a0dismantling of one settlement<\/a>\u00a0home to nearly 400 people, including some 200 children and adolescents. Ninety four percent of residents in the encampment are immigrants, according to reports.<\/p>\n

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An Ipsos poll in October found 63% of Chileans cited safety and security as among voters\u2019 top priorities. (Credit: Peter Schurmann)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Fruhling says for many Chileans, such places have become a visible symbol of the consequences of mass migration. \u201cWhen people see all this, they attribute it to Venezuelans,\u201d he explains. \u201cBut obviously it is an exaggeration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Beyond expulsions, another key feature of Kast\u2019s campaign platform\u2014and one that resonated widely with Chilean voters\u2014was his tough-on-crime approach to criminals, and by extension immigrants. During his campaign Kast twice visited El Salvador to tour the notorious CECOT prison built by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, where the U.S. has sent hundreds of deported immigrants.<\/p>\n

Titled the\u00a0Plan Implacable<\/a>, or Iron Fist in English, Kast\u2019s proposal paints a nightmarish picture of foreign criminals walking the streets as Chileans remain indoors \u201cparalyzed by fear.\u201d Kast has promised longer sentences and the construction of 100,000 new prison spaces in the country, with cells deprived of windows, electricity, and all access to the outside world.<\/p>\n

According to Fruhling, several factors complicate Kast\u2019s repeated promises to expel migrants en masse, including the unwillingness of countries like Venezuela to take them back. And while Trump paid countries including El Salvador to accept deportees, Chile lacks the financial resources available to the US. That leaves imprisonment as the only option.<\/p>\n

Chile\u2019s prison population currently stands at around 60,000. Many anticipate that number to grow significantly in coming years. Some, including\u00a0local Chilean activists<\/a>, fear Kast\u2019s criminal dragnet could eventually expand to ensnare them as well in a return to the darker days of the Pinochet era.<\/p>\n

Fruhling says of all Kast\u2019s promises, incarceration is the lowest hanging fruit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat is going to be one of the more easily approachable goals for Kast, and where it will be easier to show results,\u201d he said. \u201cYou build a place where you put all of them, you capture them, and until they are received by their country of origin, you place them there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Manuel Ortiz contributed reporting for this story. It was produced with support from\u00a0Global Exchange<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Social Focus<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ByPeter Schurmann Dec 16, 2025 Chilean...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-78059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=78059"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78059\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":78060,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/78059\/revisions\/78060"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=78059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=78059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=78059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}