The Chilean Foreign Minister, Alberto Van Klaveren, met on Monday via videoconference with his Peruvian counterpart, Hugo de Zella, where they agreed to advance the implementation of joint patrols and deepen the exchange of information, in order to strengthen operational response capacity, improve management and assist the police in areas of mutual interest. The first meeting of the bilateral committee for cooperation in the field of migration comes after a few days of tension on the border. Peruvian President José Gehry called an urgent cabinet meeting last Friday and declared a state of emergency in the Tacna region for 60 days. He also sent a large contingent of soldiers to guard the border with Arica in Chile.
The militarization of the Peruvian border left 100 migrants in an irregular situation, most of them Venezuelans, stranded last Thursday in the northern part of Chile. That number has declined in recent days, but at lunchtime on Monday, about 70 illegal immigrants gathered and tried, unsuccessfully, to scam Peruvian agents. By afternoon, the number had dropped to about twenty, according to Chilean media.
Given the tension on the border, the bilateral commission, which will be led at the level of deputy ministers and undersecretaries of both countries, will consider specific operational coordination mechanisms between the Chilean Police, the Peruvian Democratic Party and the Peruvian National Police, which will facilitate joint actions. They will also establish methodologies for immigration verification, along with “ensuring the opening and operation of border crossings and immigration services.” The two countries are scheduled to meet again on December 19 to monitor the situation.
Chilean Justice Minister Luis Cordero said that the “natural flow of expenses” was being recorded and that the main problem was due to “certain demands” made by Peru. The representative for the northern region, Vlado Mirosevic, from the ruling Liberal Party, said Central table For two years, between 30 and 50 people a day left Chile across the border with Peru on an irregular basis. “The main reason is that Chile is no longer comfortable because the costs of living are very high,” he explained.
Images of families adrift have raised diplomatic alarm in both countries. A young Venezuelan man complained to television cameras: “In Peru, there are more facilities to get work. Here they don’t support us like that.” After Colombia, Peru is the second country with the largest number of Venezuelan immigrants in Latin America, with 1.6 million people, while estimates indicate that there are approximately 700,000 people in Chile. If in Cesar Vallejo’s country Venezuelans represent 87% of the immigrant population, then in Pablo Neruda’s country they represent 38%.
Two weeks before the second round that will decide Chile’s new president, far-right José Antonio Cast played one of his most dangerous cards: he promised, in the middle of the Entente Line, the border point between Peru and Chile, the mass expulsion of illegal immigrants. He warned the 336,000 undocumented people residing in Chile that they have until March 2026 – when he assumes the presidency, if he wins the election, as opinion polls indicate – to leave the country voluntarily, and if they do not, they will be detained and deported “with what they have.” Kast focused his third attempt to reach La Moneda on security, the economy and immigration control, pledging to provide a “strong hand.”
Five former Chilean foreign ministers from center-left and left-wing governments signed a letter criticizing Republican proposals to confront the migration crisis. They pointed out that they “lack logistical and financial support and have no diplomatic feasibility, given the Nicolas Maduro regime’s refusal to receive returnees from Chile. These approaches do not provide real or sustainable solutions to the situation facing the country.” They added that “the proposals, which are based on the threat of mass expulsion, the possibility of family separation or the imprisonment of people in quasi-prison facilities, are inconsistent with unrestricted respect for human dignity and with the standards of the international and regional system for the protection of human rights.”
When the Peruvian president was asked last Friday about the impact of CAST’s promises on the militarization of the border, he replied that it was an action that should have been done a long time ago. He pointed out, “Pay attention to our borders and impose the principle of authority. Statements of any kind are circumstantial.” Foreign Minister Hugo de Zella added that the Republican “is not a Chilean authority and cannot speak on behalf of the Chilean government.” José Koechlin, a specialist in immigration issues, points out that although Kast seeks to capitalize on the unrest in Chilean society, “it is so complex that he could materialize this in the hypothetical situation in which he comes to power, because a lot of logistical circumstances are needed to expel such a large population.”
Specialists agree that penetration in Peru was greater because, in addition to the open-door policy promoted by the government of Pedro Pablo Kuczynski – which ended up spiraling out of control – for almost a decade, there is a high level of informal activity. Seven out of 10 Peruvians earn their daily living outside the law and without access to employment benefits. Employers often exploit this gray line to subcontract foreigners at low cost, taking advantage of those who have problems with their paperwork. In Chile, by contrast, the informal employment rate is less than 30%.
University professor Antonio Ruiz de Montoya stresses that we should not forget in the public debate that, beyond military borders, a humanitarian plan must be designed to accept extremely vulnerable cases such as the elderly, pregnant women, children, and cancer patients, among others. “Peru has every right to protect its borders from potential criminals, but it cannot ignore the most vulnerable,” he says.
For decades, the economy of southern Peru has relied on trade with Chile. According to the Tacna Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Production, before the pandemic, about 25,000 Chilean tourists crossed the border every weekend in search of a good restaurant, clothes or entertainment. Now they barely number 10,000. “An indiscriminate closure of the border would affect the Venezuelan diaspora, but also the Peruvian economy,” notes José Koechlin.
General Luis Oliverio Chumpitas, the former police chief of the Tacna region who headed the police department that provides security for all of Peru’s borders between 2023 and 204, realizes that it is only in the past two years that agents have had modern vehicles and technology to patrol the region. With the declaration of a state of emergency, monitoring will continue. “The terrain is rugged and inaccessible, and we had few resources. But we worked with the immigration department and even with the Chilean police. This level of coordination must be restored.”