Venezuelans residing in Chile rejoice in Santiago on Jan. 3, 2026, after US forces captured Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large scale strike” on Venezuela.
JAVIER TORRES/AFP by way of Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
JAVIER TORRES/AFP by way of Getty Photos
SANTIAGO, Chile — Early final Saturday morning, Chile’s capital awoke to the sound of jubilant cheers echoing between the tower blocks.
Information had filtered via from Caracas of the U.S. operation to grab President Nicolás Maduro, and Chile’s sizable Venezuelan diaspora may barely comprise its pleasure.
Greater than 1,000 individuals gathered in Parque Almagro in Santiago to embrace each other, cheer, chant and weep.
“I was in the park with them all day,” mentioned Mary Montesinos, 49, the Chile consultant of Voluntad Widespread, one among Venezuela’s main opposition events.
“The topic of conversation was that we’re all going to go home, the regime will fall and we will get our democracy back.”
However, like many, Montesinos is eager to induce warning. “They’ve captured Maduro, but the regime hasn’t fallen,” she mentioned. “They’ve been building it for 25 years, it’ll take a long time to disassemble.”
Amid one among Latin America’s worst ever refugee crises, the United Nations Refugee Company estimates that as a lot as 23 % of Venezuela’s inhabitants has fled the nation because the financial disaster deepened. On the finish of final yr, as many as 2,000 individuals had been nonetheless leaving each day.
Chile has obtained many of those migrants.
Montesinos arrived in 2003 together with her Chilean husband when there have been nearly no Venezuelans residing within the nation. She remembers early meet-ups for the diaspora had been largely attended by Chileans who had grown up in Venezuela, and they’d make typical Venezuelan dishes utilizing whichever substitute components they may discover.
Now, outlets up and down the nation promote queso llanero, a crumbly white cheese, and Venezuelan manufacturers of cornflour. Tiny bars in desert cities promote bottled Venezuelan drinks, and you may even discover arepas and tequeños in blustery Punta Arenas, Chile’s southernmost metropolis simply above the Antarctic circle.
Venezuelans residing in Chile rejoice in Santiago on Jan. 3, 2026, after U.S. forces captured Venezuelan chief Nicolas Maduro after launching a “large scale strike” on Venezuela.
JAVIER TORRES/AFP by way of Getty Photos
conceal caption
toggle caption
JAVIER TORRES/AFP by way of Getty Photos
A number of waves of migration have introduced Venezuelans right down to the south of the continent, with many arriving by way of different Latin American nations looking for employment and alternatives. In the course of the coronavirus pandemic, with borders closed, many arrived illegally on foot via the desert, too.
In Chile’s 2024 census, Venezuelans had been comfortably the most important group of foreigners within the nation amongst its 18.5 million inhabitants. It registered 669,000 Venezuelans in Chile, excess of the second-largest diaspora: 233,000 Peruvians. The bulk are younger, with solely 5% of the Venezuelan inhabitants in Chile older than 45.
However there was important pushback from Chileans with the brand new arrivals.
“When they report crimes on the news, they only say the nationality of the perpetrator if they’re foreign, installing a negative perception around Venezuelan migration,” mentioned Montesinos.
Chile’s president-elect, far-right José Antonio Kast, stormed to victory in December’s elections by linking a wave of unlawful migration to a way of public insecurity and fears over organised crime. He made a behavior of threatening unlawful migrants at his public rallies by counting down the times for them to go away Chile earlier than his inauguration on 11 March.
An estimated 334,000 Venezuelans reside illegally in Chile. Kast has mooted detention amenities, border partitions and ditches to halt unlawful migration; and aggressive insurance policies to pursue, detain and deport unlawful migrants.
Kast enthusiastically welcomed the U.S. intervention in Chile, describing the operation as “great news.”
Outgoing leftist President Gabriel Boric was extra circumspect: “Today it’s Venezuela, tomorrow it could be any other [country].”
Roberto Becerra, 43, arrived in Chile in 2017, fearing for his security in Venezuela because of his political actions.
He helped organise three voting stations in Santiago for the 2024 presidential elections in Venezuela, wherein President Maduro claimed victory regardless of worldwide observers broadly asserting that the opposition had gained.
“What we can do from Chile as members of political parties is make what is happening in Venezuela visible,” he mentioned.
“We are the voice of those who cannot speak up, because look what has happened in Venezuela – nobody has been able to say anything, whereas in the rest of the world we have been out in the streets celebrating.”
However whereas uncertainty stays for a lot of, nostalgia for Venezuela has acquired many within the diaspora in Chile dreaming of a return dwelling.
Montesinos says that, below the best circumstances, she would return to assist rebuild the nation, “If there was a call to return [to Venezuela] to help rebuild, I would go,” she mentioned.
“To be part of that story would be really inspiring.”
