Chile's new right-wing government said Monday it will cancel plans to grant legal status to tens of thousands of migrants who entered the country irregularly.
The previous leftist government of president Gabriel Boric had prepared a decree giving the green light to 182,000 people who applied for legal status.
But the new government of José Antonio Kast, who campaigned with a pledge to crack down on immigration, will not act on this decree, said Chile's Migration Service.
"We are not going to proceed with a massive granting of residency papers as proposed by the Boric government," Migration Service director Frank Sauerbaum said.
Earlier this month Kast ordered the start of construction of new barriers on the Peruvian border.
Kast has vowed to crack down on immigration from Peru and Bolivia to create a "border shield."
The Santiago-born president has also pledged to take action to stem the rise in murders, kidnappings and extortion, which he blames on undocumented immigrants.
Kast's election brought the most right-wing president to power in Chile since the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, from 1973 to 1990.
According to government estimates, there are around 337,000 foreign nationals in Chile who lack residency papers.
Expropriation reversed
Kast's administration will also reverse plans to expropriate a German-themed settlement that served as a torture centre under Pinochet, a government minister said in remarks published Sunday.
Colonia Dignidad, as it was called, featured a swimming pool, manicured lawns and lush forest backdrop, making it look like a nice holiday getaway spot. But in Chile, the area's name is synonymous with horror, as the former home of a brutal cult that was used for torturing and killing dissidents during Pinochet's dictatorship.
Last year, then-president Boric ordered that 116 hectares (287 acres) of the 4,800-hectare site – an area including the residents' homes, a hotel, a restaurant and several food processing factories – be expropriated to make way for a center of remembrance.
This will no longer happen for financial reasons, said Housing Minister Iván Poduje.
"We are going to reverse the issue of the expropriation of Colonia Dignidad and we will issue a new decree that revokes the one that gave rise to the plan," Poduje said, according to the La Tercera newspaper.
"This project has nothing to do with our agenda," the minister said.
He said the Kast administration inherited a terrible financial situation from the last government and is axing four big projects including the Colonia Dignidad one.
Around 3,200 people were killed and more than 38,000 people tortured during Chile's brutal dictatorship.
An estimated 26 dissidents disappeared in Colonia Dignidad, where a potato shed – now a national monument – was used to torture dozens of kidnapped regime opponents.
It was founded in 1961 by a former Nazi soldier, Paul Schaefer, who let the Pinochet dictatorship use it as a prison and torture centre. Schaefer was eventually jailed for the sexual abuse and torture of children at the settlement. He died in 2010.
Kast has praised the Pinochet regime, but the housing minister insisted the plans to end the expropriation had nothing to do with politics. "Zero ideology," Poduje said.
– TIMES/AFP
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