Kast Needs His Own Side to Pass His Security Reform. It Is Not Cooperating
Kast filed eight constitutional changes on 17 August. His libertarian allies are threatening to reject them, and the UDI says it cannot back them as drafted. The post Kast Needs His Own Side to Pass His Security Reform. It Is Not Cooperating appeared first on The Rio Times .
President José Antonio Kast is struggling to secure votes for his crime bill, and his opposition is coming from his own political side. The controversial Kast security reform, filed on 17 August 2026, includes a new constitutional state of exception that could last up to eight months in response to serious threats to public security.
However, the party of his right, Partido Nacional Libertario (PNL), led by Johannes Kaiser, has criticized the reform for creating a totalitarian state and proposed placing limits on it. PNL deputy Vanessa Kaiser went further, calling the normalization of the state of exception "a change of regime" and tantamount to a regime change.
The other large party of the Chilean right, Renovación Nacional (RN), has filed amendments and committed its support to the reform, but still has concerns about the restrictions on constitutional guarantees such as health and education. Kast's strategy of filing reforms with maximum urgency, absorbing criticism from allies, and amending them is likely to continue as he attempts to navigate the right's opposition to his signature issue.
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