Brazil & Southern Cone - October 2026

The right-wing governmen of President José Antonio Kast submitted a package of proposals to congress in August which seek to strengthen the capacity of authorities to combat organised crime and other public security threats. However, the reform legislation, which included the creation of a new, more restrictive state of emergency, was slameed by opposition figures and human rights groups, prompting the Kast government to ultimately withdraw and re-draft the legislation.

“When we took office… we did so facing one of the greatest security crises in Chile’s recent history,” Kast said at a ceremony on 10 August, when he unveiled the constitutional reform, which would later be submitted to the senate on 17 August. He added that “one might attribute all the responsibility to one government, but that is not the case”, stating that the “phenomenon of transnational organised crime and terrorism has a long history”, seeking to blame not just the previous administration of left-wing former president Gabriel Boric (2022-2026), but also those who came before.

Tackling crime was a key pledge of Kast’s 2025 presidential election campaign, but his government’s lack of a clear security plan forced the resignation of his first public security minister, Trinidad Steinert, in May, just two months into his term [SSR-26-06]. While her replacement, Martín Arrau, unveiled a security plan in June [SSR-26-07], major security reforms had not been proposed until the ceremony in August. Kast said that the constitutional reform package, which forms part of a broader security agenda containing over 30 other pieces of legislation, includes proposals such as enshrining the constitutional duty of the State to ensure public security, creating a national registry of criminal and terrorist organisations and punishing those who belong to these groups, and creating a new state of emergency based on public security concerns.

Under the proposed constitutional reform legislation, the president would be able to decree a state of emergency in response to a public calamity or “serious and imminent threat” to security. This could last up to 120 days and can be renewed with the president’s signature for another 120 days, without the need for congressional approval. Lawmakers would only be able to vote on the state of emergency if the government sought to extend it beyond 240 days. Upon the declaration of a state of emergency for public security, the constitutional reform proposes that the president of the republic may “suspend or restrict personal liberty, freedom of movement, and the right of assembly”, as well as “restrict the exercise of the right of association; intercept, open, or search documents and all forms of communications; and order the requisitioning of property”. The areas in which the state of emergency is declared would also be placed under the command of a ‘General Officer’ to be designated by the president. The proposal also states that the armed forces “could provide assistance” to security forces during the state of emergency, although it does not provide details pertaining to oversight and accountability for the military’s involvement.

The proposal represents a possible move to significantly expand the powers of the head of state in the realm of public security. Currently, Chile’s constitution allows emergencies to be declared for various purposes but with greater checks and limitations. A president can declare a state of catastrophe in the case of a “public calamity”, which entails restrictions on freedom of movement and assembly, as well as allowing authorities to requisition property. This can be decreed for up to a year, but congress can vote to end it after 180 days if the cause of the crisis is deemed to have been contained. The constitution also allows for other forms of emergencies to be declared, such as a state of assembly which a president can decree during a war against an external threat, a 15-day state of siege in response to internal threats, as well as a 15-day state of emergency in response to threats to public order or security.

Human rights groups have expressed concern over the Kast administration’s proposal for a new state of emergency. International NGO Human Rights Watch released a statement on 1 September in which it cited its Americas director, Juanita Goebertus, as warning that the “proposed constitutional amendments threaten the rights of Chileans and endanger their institutions” and that “this is a dangerous power grab that puts the rights of all Chileans at risk”.

On 24 August Viviana Cáceres, the research and advocacy director of the Chilean branch of Amnesty International, published an opinion piece in national newspaper La Tercera in which she referred not just to Kast’s constitutional reform proposal but also criticised a general rollback of accountability and oversight regarding public security in Chile. “It is concerning that the security reforms and bills currently being promoted in congress are not taking these checks and balances into account,” she wrote.

In addition to criticism from international NGOs, Londres 38, a Chilean museum located in a former dictatorship-era detention centre in Santiago which today hosts events and promotes human rights, also released a statement on 8 September to criticise the security reform. “We strongly reject the constitutional reforms promoted by the Kast government and presented as a prerequisite for the security agenda,” the statement read, adding that “there has been widespread concern about this reform, and constitutional experts have even warned about the risk that it could lead to a ‘constitutional dictatorship’”. Londres 38 also warned that the armed forces’ participation in public security has previously “not only failed to contribute to the objective, but has also led to serious and widespread violations of the population’s rights and increased corruption within their ranks”.

After the Kast government submitted the legislation to be reviewed in the senate, Boric called on the left-wing opposition in congress to reject the reform. He described the proposed state of emergency as “a restriction of freedoms unprecedented in Chilean democracy”. The party president of Boric’s Frente Amplio (FA), Gael Yeomans, has also criticised the legislation. In a radio interview with Tele13 Radio on 23 August, Yeomans said that the “constitutional reform is not for security” and that it “brings us back to the past”, adding that it would grant President Kast “excessive powers to even intercept telephone calls” and “restrict people’s freedom of movement”.

In addition to left-wing parties such as FA, right-wing parties have also expressed concern over the legislation. Senator Vanessa Kaiser, a member of the far-right Partido Nacional Libertario (PNL) and sister of party founder Johannes Kaiser, said on 19 August during an interview on Radio 13c that the Kast government’s proposed reform would “change absolutely nothing” in the fight against criminality and organised crime. She also criticised the fact that the reforms were being proposed as constitutional amendments rather than as regular bills in congress. Even members of parties that are part of the governing coalition in congress, such as the right-wing Unión Demócrata Independiente (UDI), have criticised the security reform. On 16 August the UDI’s party president, Guillermo Ramírez, was cited by La Tercera as saying that the legislation in its current form would damage Chile’s institutions.

Given the mounting criticisms against the reform throughout August and September and the increasingly unlikely prospect that it would pass congress in its original form, the Kast government announced in October that it will withdraw the legislation and instead submit a new reform drafted in collaboration with both government-aligned as well as opposition lawmakers.

State of exception extension

In September Chile’s congress approved another 30-day extension of the state of exception in the south of the country, which has been continuously in effect since May 2022 and was first implemented in October 2021. According to a senate press release, rural violence in the south has decreased by 85% since 2021, but senators still warned that, despite the decline in violence, criminal organisations continue to operate in the region.

Declining public approval

Amid the increasing backlash and criticism of the reform, polling firm Cadem released data on 27 August which showed only 41% of survey respondents expressing approval for Kast’s security agenda. This is down from 49% in a previous Cadem poll on 7 August.