LatinNews Daily - 31 March 2026

*Chile’s Public Security Minister Trinidad Steinert has said there will not be any cuts to the security ministry’s budget, indicating that the government of President José Antonio Kast is rolling back on budget cuts proposed last week. Speaking to the press following a meeting with the government’s budget directorate (Dipres), Steinert said there was “good news”, adding that “there are no cuts for security, in any area”. She said that Kast had decided not to reduce the budget and that the government would move forward with “injecting new funds to address the urgent needs of our police forces, ensuring their proper functioning, strengthening their operational capacity, and providing concrete responses to the public”. Steinert added that: “Security demands firm decisions, with a sense of urgency, and today we took a step in that direction.” This comes after the local press reported that Kast’s government had proposed a budget cut of Cl$72bn (US$77.3m) to the public security budget as part of the finance ministry’s drive to cut costs by reducing ministerial budgets.