Chile · Politics

Key Facts

• The reformEleven changes to Chile’s constitution, aimed at organised crime and terrorism. It enters through the Senate, with formal presentation on Tuesday 18 August.
• The rejectionGuillermo Ramírez, who leads the UDI, said that as things stand his party cannot back the reform because it damages the country’s institutions — and he said it before the final text had even arrived.
• Kast’s answerThe president did not argue the merits. He called it premature to declare the reform short of votes when the text has not been formally presented.
• RN’s positionAndrea Balladares, the senator who in March became the first woman to lead Renovación Nacional, backs the security agenda but not the route — she says the constitution should not become a catalogue of measures.
• The oppositionRaúl Soto, a PPD deputy who also runs the party, calls the draft a Trojan horse and says it carries the seed of an illiberal government.
• The mathsIt needs four-sevenths of both chambers — 89 of 155 deputies and 29 of 50 senators. That is a high bar without the UDI.

Chile’s president wants eleven changes to the constitution to fight organised crime — and the first party to say no was one of his own.

If you follow Chilean politics for a living, this is the week the government’s security plan stopped being a question about the opposition. President José Antonio Kast, sworn in on 11 March 2026 for a four-year term, is trying to put eleven changes into the constitution — and the first firm rejection came from the UDI, a party on his own side of the aisle.

What the reform actually does

The package is called ACOT, the Agenda Against Organised Crime and Terrorism. It is one constitutional reform plus roughly thirty separate bills, and the government has asked for fast-track handling.

The constitutional piece makes eleven changes. It writes public security into the constitution as a duty of the state, creates an official list of criminal organisations, and sets up separate prison regimes for people convicted of organised crime.

The most contested part is a new state of exception. It would be triggered by a serious disturbance of public security, run for thirty days, and be renewable.

None of this is law. The text enters through the Senate and is formally presented on Tuesday 18 August, which is exactly why the timing of the row matters.

The UDI said no before reading it

Guillermo Ramírez, the UDI’s president, put it plainly: as things currently stand, the party cannot support the constitutional security reforms, because in his view they damage the country’s institutions.

He said that before the final text reached Congress. That sequence — a rejection ahead of the document — is the part that irritated the government.

Kast did not defend the substance in response. He said it was premature to declare that the reform lacks the votes when it has not yet been formally presented.

Senator Iván Moreira, also of the UDI, made the same narrow point from inside the party. His argument was simply that the definitive text of the reform is not yet known.

RN backs the goal and questions the method

Renovación Nacional, the other large party on the government’s side, did not follow the UDI into outright rejection. Its president is Andrea Balladares, a senator who was elected on 28 March 2026 and is the first woman to lead the party.

She said RN strongly backs the government’s security agenda. That is support, not a break.

Her objection is to the vehicle. The constitution, she argued, cannot be turned into a catalogue of measures, or rewritten every time the country runs into a problem.

Her summary of the disagreement is the cleanest line anyone has offered: on security, what is needed is effectiveness, not maximalism.

The opposition goes harder

Raúl Soto is a deputy for the PPD and the party’s president, and he sits with the opposition. He went well past procedural complaints.

He said the draft carries the seed of an illiberal, autocratic or authoritarian government. He also described it as a possible Trojan horse inside the ACOT package.

That language tells you what the fight will be about once the text is public. Not whether Chile should confront organised crime, but how much permanent power the state should take to do it.

What happens from Tuesday

The government has asked for fast-track treatment of the whole ACOT package, which is one constitutional reform plus around thirty ordinary bills. The ordinary bills need simple majorities. The constitutional one does not.

That gap is the government’s opening. It can move the thirty bills while the constitutional fight goes on, and claim progress on security without winning the argument about the constitution.

The UDI’s position is also not a vote yet. Ramírez framed it as the party’s stance under current conditions, which leaves room to move once the text is public and negotiable.

So the thing to watch is narrow and specific: whether the government trades away the new state of exception to keep the rest, or holds it and risks the whole reform.

Why this matters if you live in or invest in Latin America

Chile is the country the region’s investors have used as their benchmark for predictable rules. That is the asset actually in play here, more than any single crime statistic.

The arithmetic is unforgiving. A four-sevenths majority means 89 of 155 deputies and 29 of 50 senators, and a government cannot reach that while a party in its own coalition is publicly out.

So the realistic outcomes are a negotiated, narrower reform or a stalemate. Either way, the signal for anyone pricing Chilean risk is that constitutional change still needs broad consent — which is, in itself, the reassuring part of an unruly week.

Watch the Senate from Tuesday. The question to follow is not whether the UDI is angry, but whether the state-of-exception clause survives contact with a chamber the government does not control.

Frequently Asked Questions

Has Chile’s security reform passed?

No. It is a constitutional reform that enters through the Senate, with formal presentation on Tuesday 18 August 2026. It has not been debated or voted.

Why is Kast’s own coalition resisting?

The UDI’s president, Guillermo Ramírez, says that as things stand the reforms damage Chile’s institutions. RN’s president, Andrea Balladares, supports the security agenda but objects to changing the constitution to deliver it.

What did Kast actually say?

He called it premature to say the reform does not have the votes, on the grounds that the final text had not yet been formally presented. He did not argue the substance.

What majority does it need?

Four-sevenths of both chambers — 89 of 155 deputies and 29 of 50 senators. That is why losing the UDI matters so much.

Connected Coverage

Sources: Reforma de seguridad de Kast divide a senadores de derecha; Los 11 cambios a la Constitución que contempla …; Avanza en Chile un proyecto que busca ampliar la legítima de; Nueva fricción en Gobierno: Chomali cuestiona reforma de …; Reforma constitucional de seguridad tensiona a la UDI y suma

This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error