Original article: “Nunca estuvieron perdidos”: PDI ubicó a los 64 niños haitianos y se cae a pedazos la versión migratoria de Kast

PDI Confirms Location of 64 Haitian Children, Debunking Kast’s Immigration Claims

The Investigative Police (PDI) confirmed the whereabouts of the 64 Haitian children who were unaccounted for in the preliminary report by the General of the Republic, refuting the government’s narrative under José Antonio Kast that suggested a supposed network for human trafficking that may have operated during former president Gabriel Boric’s administration.

The investigation conducted by the PDI revealed that 63 of the children and adolescents are currently in Chile, with one teen residing in Mexico, all in conditions that discount any illegal activities related to their entry into the country.

The agency’s director, Eduardo Cerna, stated that most of the minors are enrolled in health and education systems and emphasized that there are no records linking these cases to crimes like trafficking or human smuggling.

This discovery comes amid a wave of speculation and uncertainty sparked by the release of a preliminary report from the Comptroller’s office, which had led to a public alarm scenario driven by La Moneda that now seems unfounded based on the police investigation’s results.

When the document was leaked on April 14, media outlets published headlines including «Over 200 Haitian Children Missing,» «184 Minors Unaccounted For,» and «486 Children Arrived with Only 12 Adults». Simultaneously, the Prosecutor’s Office launched an investigation into trafficking, smuggling, forgery, and bribery, while the National Migration Service filed criminal complaints against charter flights; columnists speculated about sexual exploitation, and the government convened representatives from all three branches of government for emergency meetings to discuss the alleged irregular entry of more than 200 Haitian children into the country between January and October 2023, claiming their whereabouts were unknown.

According to Interior Minister Claudio Alvarado, Kast ordered that authorities «act with the utmost urgency» to address «irregularities, errors, and potential crimes in the context of the mass and uncontrolled entry of Haitian children into Chile in recent years.

However, the report’s findings revealed that the National Migration Service did not adequately cross-reference its databases, the PDI lacked formal protocols, the Undersecretariat for Children failed to provide timely follow-up, and three government agencies that were supposed to coordinate simply did not. This highlighted administrative chaos that, from the ultra-right president’s administration, attempted to frame this as a national security crisis.

Deputy Winter Accuses Kast of Political Exploitation to Create National Shock

Deputy Gonzalo Winter (FA) was one of the first to respond after these new details emerged, questioning the public handling of the case. «I am glad those children are safe and mostly enrolled in school. This makes it clear they were never lost, as stated on multiple occasions,» the parliamentarian affirmed, expressing a shift in perspective imposed by the PDI’s findings.

In a message shared on social media, Winter further elaborated his criticisms, indicating that the situation exposes a political manipulation of the information within the confidential Comptroller’s report. According to his analysis, the government and a significant portion of the right-wing saw this document as «an opportunity to generate national outrage that would allow them to once again vilify the previous government» of President Boric.

«Today they rip their clothes. Yet merely a few months ago, they pushed and voted on legislation aimed at preventing migrant children from attending school or receiving medical care. I repeat: just a few months ago,» the parliamentarian recalled.

The Cost of Alarm and Speculation

Senator Loreto Carvajal (PPD) added her voice to the criticism, focusing on the consequences stemming from the uncertainty generated during the investigation. «If we were to analyze what went wrong here, there was a public alarm that the PDI has now mentioned. The uncertainty regarding the 64 children seems to have been resolved, but the interim path was quite brutal,» the legislator questioned during a Senate Government Committee session, as reported by Diario U. de Chile.

Carvajal warned that speculation surrounding possible crimes ended up affecting migrant families, creating an unnecessary atmosphere of stigmatization. «There was talk of child trafficking, organ trafficking, and a series of speculations when we should have had a targeted, swift investigation and a protocol to prevent all this movement that turned into a national alarm context,» the senator noted, highlighting the social costs of the unverified versions that La Moneda disseminated.