Chile’s new right-wing government on Thursday stepped up migrant deportations, expelling an initial group of 40 people from Colombia, Bolivia, and Ecuador.
President José Antonio Kast, who took office in March, is the country’s most right-wing leader since the end of General Augusto Pinochet’s rule (1973-1990). He was elected on a promise to curb illegal migration, particularly from Venezuela, which many Chileans link to a rise in violent crime.
In his first national address on Wednesday, Kast said the deportation flight would be the “first in a long series,” aimed at creating a sustained outflow of migrants “who should not stay in our country.”
“We will intensify the deportation flights,” deputy interior minister Máximo Pavez said, adding that the government also plans to return migrants by bus.
Chile’s previous left-wing government under Gabriel Boric also carried out deportations, expelling more than 6,600 migrants over five years.
During the campaign, Kast urged the roughly 330,000 migrants living illegally in Chile to leave voluntarily or face removal after his election.
Days after taking office, he ordered the construction of trenches along Chile’s borders with Peru and Bolivia—key entry points for migrants from Venezuela and other Latin American countries.
The government has also scrapped plans to grant legal status to around 180,000 foreign nationals.
Kast has further suggested that Venezuelans who fled the country’s economic collapse could return home, arguing that conditions have changed following the removal of socialist leader Nicolás Maduro, who is now in custody in New York.
