Chile's MAGA-inspired border control

Here is the latest breaking news from around the world: The Americas Chile's MAGA-inspired border control May 23, 20266:00 AM ET By John Bartlett On Chile's northernmost border with Peru, military excavators carve a deep trench across the windswept pampa, part of a hardline effort to tighten control of migration and cross-border crime under President José Antonio Kast. John Bartlett/NPR hide caption toggle caption John Bartlett/NPR ARICA, Chile—Out on the wide open plain on Chile's northernmost coastline, dust billows in the cool breeze which sweeps across the pampa. In front of a row of concrete markers tracing the border with Peru, two sandy-yellow Chilean military excavators crawl along a deep trench, digging three metres down before swinging sharply to dump bucketloads of earth into a rising embankment.

A few hundred yards across the pampa from where Chilean soldiers patrol the boundary, stern-faced, the Peruvian border police sit under wind-torn blue awnings, eyeing the Chileans warily. This barrier is newly inaugurated far-right President José Antonio Kast's answer to the migration crisis that propelled him to power in December's runoff election, where he won 58% of the vote. It also echoes President Trump's pledges to build a wall along the U.

The Details

–Mexico border, a key element of his immigration agenda. Sponsor Message During the campaign, Kast regularly threatened the 336,000 migrants living illegally in Chile, according to official estimates, with expulsion. So far, he has deported just 40 people on a single outbound flight.

"We want to use excavators to build a sovereign Chile… which has been undermined by illegal immigration, drug trafficking, and organized crime," he declared on a visit to this frontier just five days after assuming the presidency. Kast, an ultra-conservative Catholic father-of-nine, has made a career on the extreme fringes of Chilean politics with his hardline views. Over the last five years, he has made illegal immigration – and the public security fears which have accompanied it – his battleflag, drawing comparisons to President Trump.

6% progress, which means about six kilometres in this area," says Cristián Sayes, President Kast's delegate in this, Chile's northernmost administrative region. "The ultimate goal is to have constant control of the border so that we can stop illegal migration once and for all, but also confront drug trafficking, smuggling, and human trafficking," said Sayes. Chilean President Jose Antonio Kast walks past diggers along the northern border at the Chacalluta border crossing in Arica, Chile, March 2026.

Esteban Felix/AP hide caption toggle caption Esteban Felix/AP This ditch will be 11 kilometres long. Another, higher up in the mountains, will stretch for seven kilometres, and further south on the border with Bolivia, two more ditches are being dug.

The development has drawn wide international attention, with diplomatic circles watching closely.