Chilean presidential hopeful José Antonio Kast has ignited regional tensions with his controversial immigration stance, threatening to expel 350,000 migrants within 98 days if elected. During a recent debate, Kast warned those who failed to comply would be forced to leave “with nothing but the clothes on their backs.
Despite expert consensus dismissing such mass deportations as logistically unfeasible within the proposed timeframe, Kast’s rhetoric has already produced tangible consequences. Peruvian acting president José Jeri has responded by deploying military personnel to the Chile-Peru border, signaling growing regional apprehension.
Political analysts observe that Kast is strategically leveraging public anxiety about security issues to fuel anti-immigrant sentiment. His campaign systematically attributes Chile’s domestic challenges to migrant populations, a approach critics characterize as fear-mongering and discriminatory.
The escalating situation has prompted intervention from diplomatic veterans. A collective of former foreign ministers issued a formal statement condemning the proposed measures as fundamentally incompatible with international human rights standards. They specifically highlighted concerns about potential family separations and the establishment of quasi-carceral facilities for migrants.
The statement further cautioned against unnecessarily straining diplomatic relations with neighboring nations and criticized the promotion of deportation policies that deliberately ignore practical implementation constraints, human costs, and substantial financial burdens for purely electoral gains.









