The president of Venezuela, Nicolás Maduro, warned the elected president of Chile, José Antonio Kast, to avoid meddling with Venezuelan migrants in that country, amid the accusations, which he claims, Kast is making against his compatriots. “You may be a convicted and confessed pinochetista, but be careful, don't you dare touch a single hair on a Venezuelan, Venezuelans demand respect,” the ruler said on his television program ‘Con Maduro+’, broadcast by the state channel Venezolana de Televisión (VTV). “Listen to me well, you hear, that whoever meddles with Venezuela dries up, and you can dry up very quickly, señor Kast,” he added. “Leave whoever is quiet alone,” Maduro insisted while criticizing the far-right politician's speech about migrants, who, he said, “have rights and the Chilean constitution must guarantee them.” In this context, Maduro invited his compatriots “with great respect” to return to the country and announced a special support plan for Venezuelans in Chile who want to return through the government program Vuelta a la Patria, which will be coordinated by the vice president, Delcy Rodríguez, and the head of that plan, Camilla Fabri. “If I could send 100 planes to bring them all back tomorrow with free tickets, I would do it, just as we are bringing all migrants from the United States, freeing and rescuing them from prison... whoever wants to return will have our decisive support,” he added. “I want the dictatorship in Venezuela to end,” Kast said, who, before departing for Argentina, where he will meet with Javier Milei, was asked by the press about Maduro's words. “I don't care,” he replied. Kast focused his speech on the expulsion of irregular immigrants, although during the campaign he moderated his tone and even came to propose that he sought to “invite them to leave” the country. In his plan called ‘Border Shield’, with clear similarities to Trump's policy, carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), he advocates for the installation of walls over 5 meters high, trenches, drones with facial recognition, and thermal radars. He also advocates for the use of state force in necessary cases at the border. “It cannot be that more than 8 million have been forced to leave the country, from hunger, from danger, and that has to end,” Kast said. Previously, Maduro had assured that “nazifascism” intends to “impose itself again” in Chile. Furthermore, considered the number two of chavismo, Diosdado Cabello, said on this occasion that Kast's victory in Chile was due to the “lukewarmness” with which Gabriel Boric governs. Being ultraliberal in economics, Kast will become the first pinochetista to come to power 35 years after the end of the dictatorship, after prevailing in the country's 16 regions and achieving the second most extensive victory in a second round since the return to democracy (the first was that of Michelle Bachelet against Evelyn Matthei in 2013). One of Kast's central axes is the migration issue. He also committed to sanctioning employers who hire irregular migrants and will prohibit renting housing to this type of migrant.
