Chile Weighs U.S. Ties Amid Sovereignty Dispute

Chile has not confirmed a possible November visit by U.S. Vice President JD Vance, as President José Antonio Kast’s government faces questions about sovereignty, regional security ties and relations with Washington. Chilean outlets Meganoticias and Ex-Ante reported advanced talks, but neither the Chilean government nor the White House confirmed the trip, its dates or its agenda.

The possible visit comes as a separate dispute over the Strait of Magellan has put Chile’s sovereignty at the center of public exchanges. U.S. Ambassador Brandon Judd said Chile needed to work with the United States on issues important to Washington if it wanted help protecting its rights over the strait, according to CNN Chile and Emol.

Foreign Minister Francisco Pérez Mackenna responded that the strait “was, is and will always be Chilean,” and said Chile didn’t need anyone’s support to defend its sovereignty. Judd later said people had taken his remarks out of context and that he hadn’t conditioned Chilean sovereignty. Fourteen opposition lawmakers wrote to Pérez Mackenna asking that Judd be declared persona non grata; reports didn’t say whether the government answered.

The proposed Washington alignment

Meganoticias linked U.S. interest in Chile to the political closeness between Kast’s government and Washington. Ex-Ante said a visit would seal a rapprochement that cooled under former President Gabriel Boric. The outlets reported that a possible stop could fall in the third or fourth week of November, and described it as potentially the highest-level U.S. visit to Chile during President Donald Trump’s second term.

Chile joined the U.S.-led Shield of the Americas, a regional crime-fighting coordination group, on Sept. 22. The outlets said the pact could feature in talks, alongside Chile’s relationship with China, its largest trading partner. The opposition and former presidents Boric and Bachelet have criticized the pact. Kast said it involved no loss of sovereignty and wasn’t a treaty, Infobae reported on Sept. 25.

Washington has also raised security and critical-infrastructure concerns about a proposed Chile-China Express undersea cable, Emol reported on Oct. 7. Reporting didn’t establish that the possible Vance visit would produce an agreement on the cable or the Shield of the Americas.

A wider regional itinerary

Argentine media treated Buenos Aires as the settled South American stop, with a planned meeting between Vance and President Javier Milei at the Casa Rosada. Officials were handling the trip secretly for security reasons, and confirmation was expected only at the last minute. Argentine government sources expected Vance in Buenos Aires in the third week of November for two to three days.

Milei’s government wants Argentina admitted to the U.S. Visa Waiver Program, which Chile already belongs to. Forbes Argentina listed trade, finance, energy, security, investment and infrastructure as subjects on the bilateral agenda on Oct. 1. Milei and Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed trade and investment in a call on Oct. 16.

Brazil was a possible additional stop, depending on the Oct. 25 runoff. Meganoticias said a win by Senator Flávio Bolsonaro, whom Trump has backed, would make a visit to the new government more likely. Peru, Ecuador and Colombia were also mentioned as possible stops. No official source had confirmed whether any of those countries would be added.

Kast closes the dispute with Argentina

On Friday, Oct. 16, Kast said Housing Minister Iván Poduje had apologized for calling Milei “increasingly crazy” and that “this will not be repeated.” Poduje made the remark at a forum run by Chilean business management institute Icare, while defending public investment in infrastructure. He later posted an apology on X, saying his comments about Argentina’s president were “not appropriate” and offering “sincere excuses.”

Kast said the Chilean government regretted Poduje’s words and regarded the matter as closed. Vice President Claudio Alvarado, who was running the government while Kast visited Bolivia, said the remarks “do not correspond,” but Poduje corrected them and apologized. No response from Milei or Argentina’s government was reported, and no reporting reviewed described an Argentine complaint.