Kast Security Reform Stalls as His Own Allies Balk

Chile · Security

Kast took office in March promising an emergency government against crime. Five months on, his toughest battle isn’t with criminals—it’s with his own allies, who are balking at his security reform.

Chile’s President Jose Antonio Kast is hitting a wall on his big security reform, and the pushback isn’t coming from the opposition—it’s from his own conservative allies. The plan, meant to crack down on crime, is stalled because his own team is balking at it.

What Kast Is Actually Proposing

Kast took office on 11 March, promising an emergency government against crime. On 5 August he went on national television to announce his answer.

It is called ACOT — the Agenda against Organised Crime and Terrorism, a package of about 28 bills bundled together. Most of these bills were already sitting in Congress, waiting to be picked up.

Only one piece needs a change to the Constitution, and that is the piece in trouble. Kast signed it at La Moneda palace on 10 August, and it reached the Senate on 13 August.

The text would write public security into the Constitution as an explicit duty of the state. The government says that gives lawmakers legal cover to defend tough laws in court.

It also creates a new state of exception, a special legal status, for a serious breakdown of public security. The trigger has to be criminal organisations, not protest or natural disaster.

The president could declare it for up to 30 days. Congress would have to agree to any renewal after that.

A later law would spell out police powers and the role of the armed forces. So the reform opens the door to soldiers on the streets — it does not order them there.

The reform also allows an official registry of criminal and terrorist organisations. And it makes it easier for the state to seize their assets.

Finally, it permits separate, harsher prison rules for convicted gang members. Communications, visits and transfers could all be restricted.

The Clause That Would Strip Health Cover

The draft’s boldest move caught many Chileans off guard. If you were convicted of drug trafficking, terrorism or organized crime, you would lose access to state-funded benefits.

That means no health care, no education support, no job protections and no social security, according to El Pais Chile on 16 August. This ban would last through your entire sentence, plus 15 years after you get out.

If you were already receiving those benefits when convicted, you would lose them automatically, the draft says. You would also be barred from parole and other prison privileges for that same 15-year stretch.

Health Minister May Chomali confirmed this clause is in the draft. She told CNN Chile on 13 August it could “interfere with other mandates” of the health system, which is her polite way of saying it clashes with the system’s core duties.

One caution matters here — this is a circulating draft, not a law. The government has not published a final text, and nobody has lost a single benefit yet.

Kast Does Not Have the Votes

Changing Chile’s Constitution needs four-sevenths of sitting lawmakers. That means 89 of 155 deputies and 29 of 50 senators.

The governing bloc has 67 votes in the Chamber of Deputies, Emol reported on 16 August. Add eight National Libertarian deputies and one from Democratas, and it still reaches only about 76.

The Senate is just as tight. The bloc has 23 votes there.

Three friendly senators would lift that to 26. The quorum is 29.

So Kast has to win over benches outside his coalition. That includes the PDG, which has just refused him.

Allies and Rivals Both Say No

The sharpest blow came from the UDI, a conservative party inside Kast’s own coalition. Its president, deputy Guillermo Ramirez, gave a blunt interview to La Tercera on 16 August.

‘In the current conditions, the UDI cannot support the security constitutional reforms because they damage the institutional framework,’ Ramirez said. He noted that his party had not even seen the official text.

His objection is technical rather than moral. Putting exceptions to general principles into the Constitution weakens it, he argues.

Ramirez actually agrees with cutting benefits for convicted traffickers and terrorists. He just thinks that belongs in ordinary law, not in the Constitution.

He says one change is genuinely needed — the new state of exception. Everything else, in his view, should be handled by a normal bill.

UDI senators rejected the government draft too, ADN Radio reported on 16 August. Deputy Daniel Lilayu told Chilean media the party would not back reforms that ‘damage the institutional framework’.

Renovacion Nacional, the other big party of the traditional right, also stepped back. On 11 August it called the reform ‘something more symbolic’, according to Radio Universidad de Chile.

The PDG — the Party of the People — sits outside the coalition and could have supplied votes. Its bench grew to 14 deputies on 16 August.

Leader Franco Parisi went on Canal 13’s Mesa Central that same day and rejected the whole idea. ‘It is not needed,’ he said of the constitutional route.

‘What is President Kast doing? Opening a door that will not be able to be closed again,’ Parisi said, in remarks reported by Emol and La Tercera.

He called the move clumsy and warned it brings ‘more uncertainty to investors’. On the arithmetic he was blunt: ‘The PDG’s votes are not there.’

The Government’s Case

The government’s argument is that the crime fight is finally working. Homicides fell to 1,091 victims in 2025, down from 1,330 in 2022.

That was a third straight annual decline. The rate of 5.4 per 100,000 people is among the lowest in Latin America.

The trend held into 2026. Chile recorded 513 homicide victims by 2 August, 16.6% fewer than a year earlier, said Deputy Security Secretary Pilar Giannini.

Security Minister Martin Arrau puts the national drop at about 17%. He says kidnappings are down 45% and drug seizures up 60%.

So why change the Constitution at all? The government wants these tough laws shielded from being struck down in court.

Why This Matters for Investors and Expats

For investors and expats, this isn’t just a crime story—it’s a question of how predictable Chile will be tomorrow. The country just escaped four years of constitutional fights, and reopening that door unsettles the calm that businesses welcomed.

There is a practical comfort, though. Most of the ACOT bills—those covering police use of force, borders, prisons, and critical infrastructure—only need a simple majority in Congress to pass, which is a lower bar to clear.

The real test is governability. Kast pushed through a huge tax and economic reform in three months, but changing the constitution needs a much wider coalition than his own party can rally.

Watch whether he trims the text down to the core that his UDI party accepts. The alternative is fighting for the full version and losing the vote, which would leave everyone back at square one.

Frequently Asked Questions

Sources: Emol – Los cambios que propone la reforma constitucional de Kast; El Pais Chile – El Gobierno de Kast pretende retirar las prestaciones de salud a los condenados por crimen organizado y terrorismo; La Tercera – Guillermo Ramirez: ‘En las condiciones actuales, la UDI no puede apoyar las reformas constitucionales de seguridad’; La Tercera – Parisi endurece criticas a Kast y descarta apoyo del PDG a la reforma constitucional; Emol – Bancada del PDG crece a 14: Arroyo se suma este lunes; Emol – Borrador de reforma constitucional: UDI condiciona apoyo; BioBioChile – Presidente Kast anuncia en cadena nacional su megarreforma en seguridad; Cooperativa – Un nuevo estado de excepcion y 28 proyectos de ley: los ejes de la ACOT; CNN Chile – Ministra Chomali admite que el borrador que remueve beneficios de salud podria interponerse con otros mandatos; El Mostrador – Gran innovacion constitucional del Presidente Kast en seguridad; Senado de Chile – Senado presente en la firma de la reforma constitucional de agenda de seguridad; Radio Universidad de Chile – Renovacion Nacional toma distancia de la reforma constitucional del Gobierno; ADN Radio – Senadores UDI rechazan borrador de La Moneda para reforma de seguridad

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