Chile’s newly inaugurated President José Antonio Kast began moving immediately to carry out a centerpiece of his campaign, beginning work on preparations for a barrier on the country’s northern border. With the project underway in the Chacalluta frontier area, Kast presented the effort as part of his “Border Shield” plan to stop illegal crossings. The work he started Monday included digging out a trench with a bulldozer, in an area where many immigrants have slipped across the Peruvian border.
Kast linked the barrier directly to a broader effort to tighten enforcement. He said the steps were meant “to close our border to illegal immigration, drug trafficking and organized crime,” and he said the government wanted “to implement this without any delay.” He also told the public that even the early stages were significant, adding, “for all of Chile, this is a milestone.”
In outlining the “Border Shield” approach, Kast said the plan includes a physical barrier made up of ditches and fences at Chile’s northern border, combined with enforcement that would include drones and military forces. The AP reported that the visible start of the effort was modest, with a single bulldozer operating to carve a trench in the desert, but Kast portrayed the action as the opening phase of a larger build-out.
The barrier work comes after Kast’s first days in office included the use of emergency powers. The AP reported that he issued half a dozen decrees aimed at ramping up border security and deporting foreigners found to have entered the country illegally. The early emphasis on swift action and enforcement also echoed tactics used by U.S. President Donald Trump, with Kast aligning his first measures toward border crackdowns.
The push for tighter controls comes as Chile’s foreign population has grown. The AP reported that Chile’s foreign population doubled between 2017 and 2024, and that more than 300,000 foreigners without proper documentation are believed to be living in the country now, including many Venezuelans.
Kast’s initiative is also playing out amid public anxiety over crime that he and his supporters connect to new arrivals. The AP reported that families fleeing political persecution and economic collapse are among the people who have come, but it also said foreign criminal gangs from Venezuela and elsewhere have settled in Chile in recent years. While Chile’s homicide rates remain low for the region, the AP reported that carjackings, kidnappings and contract killings that it said were previously unseen have appeared in local media, contributing to fear and to calls from some Chileans to blame new arrivals.
Kast’s rise marks what the AP described as Chile’s most right-wing turn since 1990, when the country restored democracy after 17 years of brutal military rule under Gen. Augusto Pinochet. The AP said Kast campaigned for Pinochet as a youth, and his rapid early start on the border barrier suggests that immigration enforcement is positioned as a defining agenda item for his administration.