Chilean Congresspeople Ask President Sheinbaum Not to Approve Chahuán As Ambassador to Mexico

ByRafael Croda

This article by Rafael Croda originally appeared in the March 12, 2026 edition of Proceso.

A group of Chilean center-left congressmen today sent a letter to Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum asking her to refuse to approve Senator Francisco Chahuán as a potential ambassador to Mexico because he promoted a bill that seeks to release thousands of human rights violators.

In a letter delivered by the president of the Socialist Party (PS), Paulina Vodanovic, to the Mexican ambassador in Chile, Laura Moreno, several opposition congressmen raised with Sheinbaum “the complexity” of the fact that the person who could be appointed as Chilean ambassador to Mexico is the one who presented a bill “that violates international law”.

Chahuán has been mentioned as a possible ambassador to Mexico by Chilean President José Antonio Kast, an ultra-right-wing politician who took office yesterday, Wednesday, and who has spoken in favor of releasing civilians and military personnel who violated human rights during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

The bill promoted by Chahuán would release perpetrators of atrocious crimes [during the Pinochet period], including common criminals who raped minors.

The letter addressed to the Mexican president by opposition legislators points out that the commitment to human rights “is not just a commitment of the left, it is a commitment of everyone regardless of political position” and that the project promoted by Chahuán would release perpetrators of atrocious crimes, including common criminals who raped minors.

Last week, Chahuán’s initiative was approved in general by a single vote in the Senate, but it still needs to be discussed in the Constitution Committee of that chamber because, according to the opposition, it violates international human rights treaties and legislation that Chile is obliged to comply with.

If it becomes law, the bill would allow the release of criminals over 70 years of age “for health reasons”.

Last week, Chahuán’s initiative was approved in general by a single vote in the Senate, but it still needs to be discussed in the Constitution Committee of that chamber because, according to the opposition, it violates international human rights treaties and legislation that Chile is obliged to comply with.

If it becomes law, the bill would allow the release of criminals over 70 years of age “for health reasons”.

After delivering the letter to Sheinbaum at the Mexican embassy in Chile, Vodanovic and Senator Juan Luis Castro said that some 12,000 prisoners could be released, which is “unacceptable”.

Castro argued that it is unacceptable for a right-wing government, like Kast’s, which is legitimate because it was elected at the polls, “to say on the one hand that it wants to fight crime very strongly, that it wants to pursue criminals to the end, and that, at the same time, on the other hand, it intends to de facto pardon by law those who have not only committed crimes against people’s rights, but also sexual abuses.”

Senator Francisco Chahuán shaking hands with former President Gabriel Boric, the ostensibly left wing student activist who fumbled constitutional reform and handed over the Presidency to fascist José Antonio Kast.

The rejection of Chahuán’s appointment as Chile’s ambassador to Mexico – which has not yet been made official – includes all human rights groups, which have also asked Sheinbaum not to give her approval to that politician if his appointment is finalized.

The Association of Relatives of Politically Executed Persons (AFEP) of Chile and more than 30 groups of victims of the Pinochet dictatorship indicated in a letter to the president that Chahuán’s legislative trajectory “clashes head-on with the international human rights standards that both Mexico and Chile have sworn to defend.”

Mr. Chahuán’s proposals “are so lax that they end up protecting even those convicted of atrocious crimes against children and adolescents, demonstrating a disregard for the integrity of the victims in favor of particular political interests,” they stated.