The government of José Antonio Kast has appointed lawyer Felipe Orellana, a career diplomat, as the new consul in Caracas after two years of broken relations between Chile and Venezuela. Foreign Minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna said the appointment “is another milestone in the renewed stage of the relationship between both countries and we hope to continue strengthening a constructive bilateral dialogue.”
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The appointment was announced this Friday, about three weeks after the right-wing administration announced that they had started a roadmap with the acting president of Venezuela, Delcy Rodríguez, to restore bilateral relations. The closure of consulates in both countries occurred after the government of Gabriel Boric, left-wing, questioned the Chavista regime, then led by Nicolás Maduro, for refusing to show the electoral records of the July 28, 2024 presidential elections.
When the thawing of relations was announced, however, it was not received unanimously within the Chilean right. While the government celebrated the progress as an achievement of the new bilateral relationship, the Libertarian National Party (PNL) questioned the benefit the country could obtain by resuming ties with a “hostile power” if, as the Foreign Ministry has indicated, the rapprochement is limited to the consular and diplomatic sphere, without covering the readmission of Venezuelans with criminal records or in irregular migratory status.
This Friday, Pérez said they hope that “soon the Chilean consulates in Caracas and Puerto Ordaz will be fully operational, and thus be able to attend to all the needs of Chileans in Venezuela who require state services.”
According to a statement from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Orellana graduated from the Chilean Diplomatic Academy and has several years in the foreign service and experience in consular functions.
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The reactivation of diplomatic relations has become a fundamental issue for Kast, who during his presidential campaign promised to expel 336,000 migrants in irregular status, mostly Venezuelans. However, the distancing from the Miraflores Palace has been the main obstacle to fulfilling this political commitment, since Chile cannot deport to Venezuela without an agreement with Caracas.
After the cessation of bilateral ties, Chile has not been able to send any Venezuelan in irregular migratory status back to their country. In fact, Chilean authorities reported at the end of June that in the first half of the year they expelled more than 1,000 undocumented foreigners. However, none were Venezuelan, the nationality that leads, with nearly 700,000 people, the group of migrants in Chile.
The reactivation of consular relations would allow these immigrants, who were left adrift after the suspension of operations of the Venezuelan embassy in Chile, to access services such as obtaining passports, visas, travel documents, and other procedures they have not had access to in the last two years. Additionally, the measure would benefit the nearly 25,000 Chileans living in Venezuela, as they will again be able to access consular assistance.