Chile's Aymaras Indigenous back Kast on migration

Описание: (12 Dec 2021) Aymara Indigenous people living in northern Chile showed their support for the right-leaning presidential hopeful José Antonio Kast amid their increasing discontent about the arrival of migrants through the Chilean-Bolivian border.
One week before the polarizing runoff elections set for 19 December, members of the Aymara community in the village of Colchane, on the Chile-Bolivia border, gathered in an effort to sway local voters to support Kast.
One of their concerns is the flow of migrants entering Chile without authorization.
"There are already too many migrants, it has already happened," said Nicolas Mamani Gomez, a Kast supporter from Cariquima village. "What kind of people are they? Are they bad people or good people?"
On the campaign trail this year, Kast has emphasized his conservative family values, attacked migrants from Haiti and Venezuela he blames for crime and blasted his opponent, left-wing candidate Gabriel Boric, as a puppet of Chile's communists.
On Saturday, Jorge Garcia Mamani, of the Colchane village, shared his frustration.
"We are not against the entry of migrants, but they should be well controlled, they should come to work. Not like now that they enter without control. Who are they?"
Colchane residents have been witnesses of an increasing number of migrants entering the country over the last few months.
Some migrants fear that Kast will close the borders to them if he wins.
Kast, who obtained 27.9% on the first round, said on Friday that he wanted to "close illegal border crossings, for drug trafficking and smuggling as well as for human trafficking, organized by criminal organizations dedicated to this," during a television debate with his rival Boric.

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