Chilean President José Antonio Kast Unveils Comprehensive Security Agenda Against Organized Crime

President José Antonio Kast has announced the Agenda Against Organized Crime and Terrorism (ACOT), a legislative package containing over 30 initiatives aimed at restoring public safety in Chile. The plan includes a constitutional reform to establish the protection of personal security as a state duty and the creation of a new state of exception for public security to address grave alterations of order. Under this proposed state of exception, police would maintain command while the Armed Forces provide support in controlling organized crime and drug trafficking. Other key measures include the establishment of a permanent police presence in the 50 most critical neighborhoods, the extension of flagrante delicto detention periods from 12 to 24 hours, and the creation of a state agency to seize and destroy assets from organized crime. To signal the start of these efforts, President Kast led a preventive police operation in Santiago's Plaza de Armas involving over 100 officers from Carabineros and the PDI. In a separate economic announcement, the president highlighted the approval of a Reconstruction Law intended to spur investment and provide housing for 100,000 families. While center-right sources frame the agenda as a necessary and urgent response to a national crisis, a center-left perspective characterizes the measures as performative and repressive norms that fail to address the root causes of crime in poor neighborhoods.