The government of newly inaugurated Chilean President José Antonio Kast announced a 72 billion pesos (approximately 77.6 million dollars) cut to the Public Security budget. During his campaign, he described this area as an "uncontrolled crisis" and part of a "national emergency," positioning it among his top priorities.
«Living without fear again is not a slogan, it is a concrete promise, and we will eradicate crime with decision, without euphemisms or half-measures,» Kast stated during his candidacy, when he also affirmed that in Chile, authority had "disappeared."
The proposal, presented to the Congress's Security Commission by the Minister of Public Security, Trinidad Steinert, contemplates cuts of 55.6 million dollars for Carabineros, 17.4 million for the Investigations Police, and 5.4 million for programs like the National Plan Against Organized Crime and the Streets Without Violence Plan, focused on reducing homicides in specific areas.
«What we have guaranteed and what we guarantee to this commission is that none of the cuts to be made will have to do with sensitive issues that naturally affect security,» assured the Undersecretary of Public Security, Andrés Jouannet, before the parliamentarians in his presentation on the budget cut.
«If a government decides to govern under the logic of an emergency, it must sustain that standard in its decisions and cannot declare a crisis and then treat security as just another variable within a general adjustment, there is where the discourse loses consistency,» said Víctor Beltrán to Efe.
Narrative versus data
In recent years, drug trafficking and organized crime have become one of the country's main concerns, expanding illicit economies, money laundering, and penetrating public and military institutions.
«Chile faces a serious problem of organized crime, but the idea of 'emergency' is not a technical diagnosis but rather a political tool to justify exceptional measures,» explained Beltrán.
During the government of Gabriel Boric (2022-2026), he added, «the security approach was modified, resources were increased, capacities were strengthened, and a more coordinated criminal persecution was established."
According to the National Homicide Victims Report 2025 from the National Prosecutor's Office, last year there were 1,091 victims, 118 less than in 2024, with an 11.5% drop in the rate that fell from 6.1 to 5.4 per every 100,000 inhabitants, after the peak of 6.7 in 2022. In this context, he maintained that «rather than an uncontrolled emergency, what there is is a system under pressure that has begun to react."
Capabilities and risks
Experts agree that despite recent strengthening, challenges persist before the evolution of organized crime, whose structures explain the sustained increase in crimes such as kidnapping and extortion.
«I do not observe elements that allow us to configure a situation of emergency with the State overwhelmed, on the contrary, the trend has been reversed and there is greater state capacity,» stated the academic and head of the Political Science career at the University of Chile, Gonzalo Parra.
He added that «the Kast government receives a State with greater preparation, resources, and tools than Boric did,» although he warned that the budget reduction could generate «strategic discoordination» and an eventual «loss of operational management."
Operational impact and consistency
The cut is part of a general 3% adjustment in all ministries, a decision that, according to experts, «strains» the diagnosis of priority in security and «does not show any specific objective in the matter."
On an operational level, the public security expert at the University of Santiago, Jorge Araya, warned of the direct effects on police work and pointed out that «it is precisely these figures that allow the operation: resources for gasoline, transfers, or investigative procedures, by taking them out, the functioning is directly affected."
Likewise, he questioned the coherence of the government by stating that «it is contradictory to give priority to security and, on the other hand, be taking resources out of the institutions that we have said need to be strengthened."
In his opinion, the main risk is to weaken criminal persecution and warned that «if the intensity of the effort is not maintained, organized crime grows again, expands, and then it is much more difficult to investigate and dismantle."
Beltrán agreed that there are no immediate effects but there are risks associated with the change in public policy and maintained that «it is not serious to say that this will translate tomorrow into more crimes, but it is evident that a risk is being assumed (...) if security was a priority, it cannot be treated as any other expenditure item."
The entry Kast announces 77 million dollar cut in security with 'emergency' for crimes was first published in La Verdad Panamá.
