José Antonio Kast, recently elected president of Chile, will certainly not be a new Bolsonaro or Milei, but something much worse. An admirer of the dictator Augusto Pinochet, he has already declared that he supports "any situation" to end Nicolás Maduro's regime in Venezuela and has already said that he should create a "humanitarian return corridor" for immigrants in an irregular situation, citing the case of Venezuelans in Chile. The crisis in Venezuela was strongly influenced by the devaluation of oil on the international market starting in 2014. Dependent on this commodity to import basic items of daily consumption, the country suffered a widespread shortage. In 2017, the sanctions imposed by Trump on the country worsened the economic crisis, fueling an unprecedented migration crisis. In 2018, the number of Venezuelans who left the country was a record high. It is estimated that more than one million left the country, adding to the two million who had already left in previous years. At the time, Jair Bolsonaro, then a presidential candidate, stated that he would seek out the UN to create refugee camps near the Brazilian border. His justification, however, was interspersed with an appeal to human rights: "I am human, I respect the human rights of those who are in a critical situation, as they are, but we cannot leave it to the Roraima government to resolve this problem." In his first month in office, Bolsonaro took Brazil of Global Compact for Migrationsigned by 164 countries. However, xenophobia was not instrumentalized by its supporters. On the contrary. Bolsonaro made a point of showing himself receptive to Venezuelan immigrants, especially through "Operação Acolhida", implemented on the Roraima border. Javier Milei, in turn, closed the activities of the National Institute against Discrimination, Xenophobia and Racism, with the justification that the body was a "job hanger" in 2024. However, as with Bolsonaro, xenophobia was not a central topic in his speech. That changed with José Kast. More than bravado, the expulsion of immigrants was one of Kast's main themes during the campaign. By associating the entry of foreigners with the increase in violence in Chile, he promised the construction of a wall on the border with Bolivia, the expulsion of all undocumented immigrants and the use of the armed forces to stop illegal immigrants. The onslaught of xenophobic speeches towards Latin American countries is extremely worrying. Xenophobia is a central element of far-right discourses in many countries, but, until now, this has not occurred in Latin America. Outside Receive in your email a weekly selection of the most important things happening in the world Milei has already shown enthusiasm for the idea. Not only did it adopt more measures against immigrants in 2025, but, shortly after Kast's victory, it posted on its social networks a map showing impoverished neighboring countries, including Brazil, and a futuristic Argentina. Now, thanks to the Pinochet president, the tragedy that is looming again in Venezuela could lead to an unprecedented break in solidarity between people in the region. LINK PRESENT: Did you like this text? Subscribers can access seven free accesses from any link per day. Just click the blue F below.