Extreme Right’s Fabricated Campaign: False Videos, Photos, and Fake Migrants Leaving Chile Due to Kast

Original article: Absurdos montajes de la ultraderecha: Falsos videos, fotos y testaferros de supuestos migrantes que se van de Chile por Kast

Operation Migration: The Extreme Right’s Campaign Using Fake Photos, Fabrications, and Threats in the Final Stretch Before the Runoff

As the presidential campaign heats up two weeks ahead of the runoff between José Antonio Kast and Jeannette Jara, the Chilean extreme right has launched a disinformation campaign, using the migration issue at the northern border as an electoral weapon.

The shared image consolidates posts analyzing several right-wing accounts that showcase the spread of old photographs, manipulated videos, out-of-context snippets, and even supposed “witnesses” repeated across different programs to artificially inflate the perception of a migration crisis.

Digital Disinformation as the Core of the Extreme Right’s Campaign

The publication by @RobertoMerken accuses José Antonio Kast of using a photo from 2021—belonging to another context and another country—to illustrate the current situation at the border. In another post, the same user exposed that “APRA extremists” shared false information about migrants, using images from Mexico as if they were from Chile to support José Antonio Kast. This was corroborated by the X administration, stating that “the video does not represent the facts; it actually involves Mexican migrants and others from Spanish-speaking countries.”

In a third record, a fabrication is dismantled where a supposed migrant intending to leave the country claims, “7,500,000 migrants, that Kast is already president and that Venezuela is at war,” denouncing the virally circulated material by right-wing accounts as “merely electoral propaganda disguised as a humanitarian crisis.”

Bot Checker also highlighted this manipulation: “Have you heard that children have been rented to enter Chile more easily? Years ago, the right was fishing for migrant votes at the border, and in an attempt to appeal to Venezuelans, they taught and normalized the ‘salvoconducto’.”

User Valentina Gutiérrez unveils Gamba.cl, debunking another image: “This idiot Hans Cuello is a fool! Just take the photo and put it in Google to realize it’s a fake.”, showcasing how old photos were circulated as if they were recent, confirmed by the X administration: “False, the photo is not current.”

Parallel to this digital offense, candidate José Antonio Kast reinforced the pre-election climate. On October 29, in statements captured by Agencia EFE, he stated the more than 330,000 irregular migrants “have 133 days to leave” voluntarily or they will be “sought after and face penalties.” Days later, in an interview reported by CNN Chile, he reiterated the warning: “To irregular immigrants in Chile, I say you have 103 days to leave voluntarily from our homeland… If you do not leave voluntarily, you will have to depart once I assume the presidency with what you have, with what you are wearing.”

Progression of the Border Crisis and the Political Use of Migration Phenomenon

Meanwhile, the crisis at the border worsens. As detailed by CNN Chile, dozens of migrants with tents and luggage have arrived in Chacalluta to leave the country before the runoff, paralleling a phenomenon that occurred in 2023: “The IOM expresses concern over what is happening at the border with Chile, due to the number of people stranded in that area without any protection, and the impact this situation has on children and adolescents, who are increasingly at risk of violence, abuse, and exploitation,” Gema Cortés of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported in writing to the German agency DW on May 9.

As of November 28, 2025, measures announced by Peru have heightened tensions: interim president José Jerí declared that “the border will be reinforced,” called for an extraordinary Council of Ministers, and ordered Migraciones and the National Police to intensify controls “for the peace of our compatriots.”

Furthermore, El Universo reported that Peru declared a state of emergency and militarization of Tacna in anticipation of “the possible arrival of dozens of migrants” fleeing Chile in the event of Kast’s victory.

Academic Ximena Póo, cited by Radio y Diario Universidad de Chile, warned that the country is facing “a perfect storm that reactivates racism and xenophobia.” According to the coordinator of the Chair of Racisms and Contemporary Migrations, “heated climates” are being institutionally validated. She asserted that “the doctrine has always been the same, considering foreigners and migrants as enemies,” and cautioned against unfeasible promises of mass expulsions that “would take decades” and could contravene international treaties. “Chile has been structurally racist, xenophobic, and classist from the colony to today,” she reiterated.

This electoral climate is not only exploited by the extreme right: it is also fueled by omissions that left openings. As analyzed by Karina Nohales and Pablo Abufom in VientoSur.info, neither the government nor candidate Jeannette Jara developed a policy to counter the extreme right: “It is true that Jara faced an adverse scenario: an unfavorable international context, the wear of being in power during a period of generalized contestation, and the weight of an effective anti-communist narrative. But it is also true that neither the government nor the candidate developed a policy aimed at confronting the extreme right. Instead, on sensitive areas like migration and security, they opted to appropriate parts of the narrative and program of their adversaries. The candidate also did not seek to differentiate herself from the persistent neoliberal consensus that all institutional forces have assumed since the defeat of the constitutional proposal in October 2022, starting with Boric’s government. This is one of the clearest expressions of the advance of the extreme right: it not only persuades the electorate but also manages to impose its political agenda broadly.”

A publication on ElCiudadano.com provided essential insight to understand the crisis: the main criminal gangs currently used as arguments for the security crisis in the country, including the Tren de Aragua—entered between 2018 and 2021, during Sebastián Piñera’s government.

Additionally, regarding the migration overflow, documents leaked by Guacamaya revealed that the top brass of the armed forces and the government were aware that “more than 56,000 individuals have been sighted crossing or attempting to cross clandestinely into Chile” yet did not strengthen the controls.

Alerts about Colchane, reports from the Drug Trafficking Observatory, and statements from the Prosecutor’s Office were ignored. The presence of Larry Changa and individuals implicated in the Ronald Ojeda case in Chile—all admitted under lenient policies of that period—demonstrates structural failures that right-wing sectors now unilaterally ascribe to the current government and the migration phenomenon in general.

This pattern of manipulation is neither casual nor isolated. As documented by international press, it is part of a global extreme right strategy, with one of the manuals utilized by Steve Bannon, who uses immigration as a focal point to spread panic, conservative nationalism, and high-impact digital campaigns based on false news. His followers replicate this method: generating fear, simplifying solutions, demonizing migrants, and above all, transforming insecurity and expulsion into an electoral promise.

Old photos, repeated testimonies, the use of intermediaries to speak in the media, reedited videos, and unreal figures seek to create a sense of chaos and thus justify an expulsion discourse that, in Ximena Póo’s words, “reactivates racism and xenophobia” in a country facing not just a migration crisis but a systematic manipulation of a human drama for electoral purposes.