President Maduro Rejects Attacks To Venezuelan Migrants in Chile

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro condemned that Chilean citizens insulted and burned the belongings of undocumented Venezuelan migrants in Iquique City on September 25, stressing that this country’s authorities must prosecute the crime perpetrators.  

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"These are attacks by extreme right-wing xenophobic groups that persecute our compatriots," Maduro pointed out and assured that the Bolivarian government would coordinate the repatriation of Venezuelan migrants through their embassy in Chile.

On Friday, Chile’s Military Police (Carabineros) expelled 150 Venezuelan families from the Bolivar Square in Iquique City, where they were lived at an improvised camp, hoping that their migratory status would be stabilized to get work. The next day, about 3,000 Chileans took to the streets and threatened to lynch the migrants.

"They threw stones and bottles at us. Other people, instead of helping, recorded with their phones; it was like a show for them. We feel humiliated and treated like animals,” 21-year-old migrant Bryan told to BBC Mundo.

In April 2018, Chile's President Sebastian Piñera announced the imposition of a “Democratic Responsibility” Visa for Venezuelan citizens to facilitate their migration to his country. However, he suspended this immigration offer in 2020 due to the pandemic, which left thousands of Venezuelan families without regularized immigration status.

The Jesuit Migrant Service estimates that 23,673 undocumented migrants entered Chile by land during the first seven months of the year. Despite this, the Piñera administration rejected the proposal of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) to establish a shelter for undocumented persons with no cost to the Chilean state.

"Migration is not a new phenomenon. Instead of preventing it, the State shall take actions to ensure the people's mobility is secure and balanced," Chile’s presidential candidate Gabriel Boric stressed.