{"id":44756,"date":"2026-08-14T17:02:53","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:02:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=44756"},"modified":"2026-08-14T17:02:53","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T12:02:53","slug":"chile-moves-hundreds-of-inmates-to-a-new-prison-as-president-kast-ramps-up-security-push","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=44756","title":{"rendered":"Chile moves hundreds of inmates to a new prison as President Kast ramps up security push"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/13\/Chile_Security_45254_s1440x960.jpg?f72536d07237fdd262042ae8f5e6e6de3b865f3c\" \/><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina \u2014 The Chilean government transferred nearly 300 high-risk inmates to a sprawling new prison on Thursday, as hard-line President Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast seeks to regain momentum on his core campaign pledge to combat <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/organized-crime\/\">organized crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Kast traveled to the recently opened <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/la-laguna-prison\/\">La Laguna Prison<\/a>, among <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chile\/\">Chile\u2019s<\/a> biggest, about 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chile\/\">Chile\u2019s<\/a> capital of Santiago, to oversee the transfer, which his government described as an effort to ease overcrowding in prisons and prevent incarcerated gang leaders from remotely running their criminal enterprises behind bars.<\/p>\n<p>Footage released by the government showed inmates packed into rows with bowed heads and shackled feet, recalling images from El Salvador, where President Nayib Bukele has made a point of broadcasting his security crackdown on social media. The mass incarceration campaign has sharply reduced violence but drawn allegations from human rights groups of arbitrary detention, abuse and the erosion of civil liberties.<\/p>\n<h3><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chile\/\">Chile\u2019s<\/a> president invokes Bukele as model<\/h3>\n<p>Like other right-wing presidential contenders across Latin America, most recently in Colombia and Peru, Kast has invoked Bukele as a model for his own promises to fight <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/organized-crime\/\">organized crime<\/a>. While campaigning last year, Kast visited El Salvador to study Bukele\u2019s security policies and tour the country\u2019s notorious mega-prison where visitation, recreation and education are not allowed.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s a way of sending criminals a clear message that things have changed: We are going to come after you, we are going to find you, you will be prosecuted and we are going to lock you up,\u201d Kast said in a press conference about the transfer.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said 295 inmates were moved early Thursday to La Laguna from prisons around the country, including 37 members of criminal organizations.<\/p>\n<aside>\n<\/aside>\n<p>Another hundred prisoners are expected to be transferred in the next week as the government moves gradually to fill La Laguna, which can hold 2,320 inmates across over a dozen units, including maximum-security wings. It\u2019s equipped with 1,500 surveillance cameras, body scanners and technology designed to block cellphone signals.<\/p>\n<h3>New prison called most modern and secure<\/h3>\n<p>The prison, billed as <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chile\/\">Chile\u2019s<\/a> most modern and secure facility, opened last year under Kast\u2019s predecessor, left-wing President Gabriel Boric, and began receiving inmates months before Kast, an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, took office.<\/p>\n<p>Kast\u2019s bid to publicize the move comes as he seeks to make good on his flagship security pledges after a halting start. He dismissed his first security minister just over two months into his administration and has struggled to implement his core campaign pledge of rapidly deporting immigrants. So far, his government has deported about 878 of the estimated 300,000 immigrants in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chile\/\">Chile<\/a> without permission to be in the country. Another 7,501 immigrants left voluntarily during the first seven months of 2026.<\/p>\n<p>With voters expressing frustration that Kast\u2019s security policies have so far differed little from those under Boric, Kast last week unveiled a major security package that would give the state broader authority to combat crime. The proposals, many of them already before Congress, call for a permanent police presence in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chile\/\">Chile\u2019s<\/a> most dangerous neighborhoods, tougher penalties for gang membership and a new state agency to seize and destroy assets linked to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/organized-crime\/\">organized crime<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The legislation would also loosen the rules governing police use of force and change the constitution to make it easier to declare states of emergency in response to grave security threats.<\/p>\n<p>                        <a name=\"pagebreak\"\/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/chile\/\">Chile<\/a> remains among the safest countries in Latin America, but a recent increase in kidnappings, extortion and drug trafficking &#8211; along with the expansion of transnational gangs such as Venezuela\u2019s Tren de Aragua &#8211; has fueled public anxiety about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/topics\/organized-crime\/\">organized crime<\/a> that helped propel Kast to electoral victory last December.<\/p>\n<div class=\"permission\" style=\"padding-top: 25px;\">\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 The Washington Times, LLC.\n                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>BUENOS AIRES, Argentina \u2014 The Chilean government transferred nearly 300 high-risk inmates to a sprawling new prison on Thursday, as hard-line President Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast seeks to regain momentum on his core campaign pledge to combat organized crime. Kast traveled to the recently opened La Laguna Prison, among Chile\u2019s biggest, about 250 kilometers (155 miles)&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":44757,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/twt-thumbs.washtimes.com\/media\/image\/2026\/08\/13\/Chile_Security_45254_c0-270-6487-4054_s1200x700.jpg?703079f23b0587a1519ffb103a28365bf2fa1552","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-44756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-hub"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=44756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44756\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/44757"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=44756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=44756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=44756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}