Chile’s Black Community Face Renewed Threats Amid Surge in Far-Right Politics | by Rebecca Johns
Reporting from Chile on Women Organizing for Black & Immigrant Communities
6 June 2025 | Santiago, Chile
Activists worry that the increasingly popular far right will worsen the lives of Black People living in Chile.
Michel-Ange Joseph [video in Spanish] was riding the metro in Santiago in 2022 when she was physically assaulted by a security guard.
She was on her way home from her job as a local government official when the man mistook her for a street vendor.
"He hit me, and told me to go back to my country, that I came to dirty his country, that Haitian women come to dirty Chile," Joseph recalls. For her, the attack was "just one of many instances" of being targeted for "just being a Black woman."
But with a presidential election looming in November 2025, Joseph fears the rising influence of far-right parties could threaten not only immigrant rights but also the fragile progress made toward racial equality.
Far-Right Success
As in many other Latin American countries, the far right has been steadily growing in Chile. A key moment came in 2022 when the Republican Party (PLR) won the majority share of the seats in the constitutional assembly.
Now, with the first round of voting set for November 2025, the struggling left-wing government will have to fight for survival against an even stronger opposition, with two hard-right politicians polling in 3rd and 5th place.
Both parties offer a strong anti-immigration rhetoric. The PLR leader, Jose Kast, recently announced the Border Shield Plan, which involves the building of 5-meter-high security fences, equipped with motion sensors and drone surveillance, alongside 3-meter deep ditches, all with the aim of stopping migrants from entering the country.
Joseph worries that the right’s promises of deportation and rhetoric of ‘Chile first’ will lead to racism against all ethnic minorities living in the country.
