Weekly Report - 15 January 2026 (WR-26-02)

Chile’s President-elect José Antonio Kast suffered a setback on 12 January when Peru’s President José Jerí rejected outright his proposal for a ‘humanitarian corridor’ for irregular migrants. The ultra-conservative Kast campaigned on a promise to give some 300,000, mostly Venezuelan, migrants a short period to leave Chile voluntarily before his investiture on 11 March or face expulsion or prosecution. He has struck a more conciliatory tone since his electoral victory last month but has been working to forge a regional consensus over repatriating migrants, visiting Ecuador’s President Daniel Noboa in Quito on 23 December before travelling to Lima to meet Jerí on 7 January.