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Original article: Golpe al Plan Nacional de Búsqueda: Hacienda apunta a cerrar programa de DD.HH. con $1.864 millones

The fiscal scissors of the government led by José Kast have reached the realm of human rights. In the process of formulating the 2027 budget, the Treasury recommended to «Discontinue» the Human Rights Program of the Human Rights Subsecretariat, a central body for executing the National Search Plan, which executed $1.864 billion in 2025.

The same document also proposes a «Budget Adjustment» for the Human Rights Program for Victims of Institutional Violence, which executed $145 million in 2025.

In other words, the Treasury is not merely discussing cutting a less significant office or trimming a decorative expense. It is jeopardizing a program that plays central roles in promoting truth, justice, and memory. This isn’t taking place in a vacuum; the memo signed by Jorge Quiroz mandates all ministries to project their budgets under restrictive logic, incorporating fiscal adjustments already applied in 2026 while operating with a maximum expenditure ceiling. The attached document even suggests that, in the medium term, «there are no fixed costs or unavoidable obligations«.

It is important to clarify this to not downplay the implications of the document. The Treasury’s memo is not a vague idea or an insignificant suggestion; within the budgetary process, it forms part of mandatory instructions for ministries to formulate their budgets under a spending ceiling and with criteria defined by Dipres and Treasury. However, it does not alone equate to the final act that extinguishes a program. Rather, what the memo does is categorize the Human Rights Program as “Discontinue,” formally placing it under scrutiny during the budget formulation process. Thus, downplaying the document’s importance is misleading, but presenting the closure as an accomplished fact would also be incorrect.

This is where the political heart of the issue lies. When the logic of budget cuts impacts human rights, the discussion transcends mere accounting. It touches on an agenda that has never been neutral for the far-right and is even less so under a government led by José Kast. Consequently, rather than a simple cut, what emerges is a signal of priorities: the fiscal scissors are moving precisely into a territory where the state should not retreat.

National Search Plan: Why the Program Targeted by the Treasury Is Not Just Any Program

The fundamental point is this: the National Search Plan does not operate in isolation. It requires a coordinating body. According to the institutional design of the plan itself, that body is precisely the Human Rights Program of the Human Rights Subsecretariat. The official document of the plan states explicitly: “The body responsible for coordinating the execution of the National Search Plan will be the Human Rights Program of the Human Rights Subsecretariat”.

Thus, when the budgetary annex features the recommendation to “Discontinue” that program, the implication is far more serious than a simple administrative adjustment. The state support for a policy designed to clarify the circumstances surrounding the disappearance or death of victims of forced disappearance during the dictatorship and respond to the right of their families to know becomes threatened. The Justice Ministry itself has defined the plan as a public policy to search for missing detainees and as an “unavoidable ethical, legal, and political responsibility of the State of Chile”.

In simple terms: if the program coordinating the National Search Plan is weakened, it isn’t merely a public agency suffering. It undermines the state’s ability to support a policy that should not depend on the fiscal whims of the current government.

National Search Plan and the Logic of Adjustment

The Treasury document does not employ loud language. It speaks of efficiency, baseline, financial sustainability, and medium-term frameworks. However, behind that technical jargon lie very tangible decisions.

On one hand, it categorizes the Human Rights Program under the label “Discontinue”. On the other, it marks the Human Rights Program for Victims of Institutional Violence for a “Budget Adjustment”. The note at the bottom of the annex clarifies that this category implies a reduction of at least 15%.

Translated into everyday language: one program is to be removed from the map, and the other is set to be trimmed. There is no mystery there.

This is occurring within a department where the allocation distribution in the annex leaves the Subsecretariat of Human Rights with one program to discontinue and another to cut, none in the category of “without observations.” That picture does not appear to be an accidental adjustment. It seems like a political priority.

When Budget Adjustments Impact Human Rights

The issue is not merely budgetary. It is also a matter of signaling.

Because if the Chilean state asserts that the National Search Plan is a state policy, a responsibility towards the victims, and a response to forced disappearance, it is significant that the program tasked with coordinating its execution now appears on the list of expendables.

Here, the narrative of adjustments begins to unveil its true content. It’s not simply about «cleaning house» or «making spending more efficient,» as is often presented. It is about deciding which areas of the state are deemed expendable. In this case, the message coming from the Treasury is harsh: among the budget lines that could fall under the scissors are precisely those connected to memory, truth, the search for the disappeared, and assistance to victims of institutional violence.

This is not a technical detail. It is a full political definition.

Because when a government opens the door to discontinue the program coordinating the search for the detained and disappeared, it is not just cutting a budget. It is weakening a historical debt of the state to the families, relativizing commitments to human rights, and revealing that, within the logic of adjustment, even the search for truth can become negotiable.

Review below the Treasury document that targets the Human Rights Program and cuts another line related to victims of institutional violence.

La entrada Significant Cuts to Human Rights Program Threaten National Search Plan in Chile se publicó primero en El Ciudadano.