Chile Enabling Environment Snapshot

This Snapshot covers Chile’s enabling environment for civil society from October 2025 to 13 March 2026.

The national political landscape is marked by the presidential transfer of power, with Gabriel Boric (Frente Amplio) handing over the presidency to José Antonio Kast (former Republican Party), establishing the first far-right government in Chile since the country’s return to democracy in 1990. 

In the days leading up to the inauguration, tensions between the two leaders became visible regarding the Chinese fiber-optic cable project and the Senate’s general approval of a bill regulating the suspension and alternative enforcement of custodial sentences. This bill could potentially be used to release individuals convicted of human rights violations. The organization Londres 38, which preserves a former torture centre as part of the country’s historical memory, stated in a public declaration that the initiative represents a serious setback in access to justice. The United Nations has already issued a technical analysis of the bill, indicating that it is incompatible with international treaties.

On 11 March, the transfer of power ceremony took place with relative normality. However, protests and barricades were reported in the surroundings of the Presidential Palace, known as “La Moneda.” That night, President Kast delivered his first speech, stating that he would seek to restore order and hope: “We are being handed a country in worse conditions than we could have imagined. A country with weakened public finances. A country where organised crime and drug trafficking have advanced. A country where families feel abandoned by the State,” he said.

Following his first day, President Kast signed a package of decrees and directives representing the priorities of his administration. Among them were the creation of a National Border Closure Policy and the declaration of a Military Zone in the most vulnerable section of the border with Bolivia. In addition, he ordered a comprehensive audit of all ministries and state institutions and signed an instruction to resolve delays in permit processing that have blocked projects worth more than USD 16 billion, affecting 51 pending appeals within the Environmental Impact Assessment System.