U. de Chile Officials Denounce U.S. Ambassador Visit as an Insult

The event took place at the Central House of the U. de Chile and included a protocol meeting between the representative of President Donald Trump’s government and university authorities, as well as a discussion with undergraduate and graduate students from various faculties and institutes.

The Association of University Workers at the University of Chile at the Juan Gómez Millas Campus issued a statement declaring that the ambassador’s presence at the university was not a sign of academic openness.

“Brandon Judd is not a figure from the scientific or intellectual world; he is a political operator of Trumpism, and his presence in our halls corresponds to a diplomatic logic that has nothing to do with the pluralism that this university claims to embody,” they stated.

They noted that the U.S. Ambassador’s visit does not occur in isolation but coincides with a time when the administration represented by Judd «actively finances and supports the war in Gaza, while Latin America is treated as a geopolitical backyard, and that same power has a concrete history of intervention, destabilization, and support for dictatorships in our region.»

“He represents a state with direct responsibilities in some of the most severe humanitarian crises in the world today,» they emphasized.

While they deemed this situation serious, they also rejected the idea that members of the Association only learned about this event through social media.

“There was no open call, no official communication to the university community, and no opportunity for prior debate. The visit was organized, managed, and conducted in a hermetic manner that has become customary in our institution,” they accused.

“This is not the first time the community has been excluded. The decisions that shape the political profile of this university are made in closed spaces, without debate, without participation, and without representation from all stakeholders,” they emphasized.

The officials recalled that when external organizations used U. de Chile facilities to express solidarity with victims of U.S. intervention, they were attacked in the name of pluralism. However, they pointed out that “today, that same pluralism had no qualms about welcoming a representative of that interventionism.”

In the statement, they asserted that the University of Chile is a public, critical institution with a memory that includes “the intervention, silencing, and wounds experienced during the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, which received support from the same power that today sends its ambassador to deliver talks in our halls.”

They stated that the educational institution “cannot serve as a showcase for those who represent interests that have historically undermined the self-determination of our peoples. It cannot continue to be managed as if the community that sustains and inhabits it has nothing to say.”

“What occurred is an affront that we will not normalize,” they concluded in the statement.