Chile cuts sentences for 56 child sexual abusers, clashing with the courts

Chile's Ministry of Justice and Human Rights reduced the sentences of 56 convicted child sexual abusers between March and September 2026, according to the newspaper La Vanguardia, triggering a serious institutional crisis with the judiciary. The measure benefited 27 people convicted of sexual abuse and 29 convicted of rape, all of them crimes committed against minors.

The controversy centers on the application of Law 21,421, enacted in February 2022 to amend the social reintegration system. The law expressly excludes from sentence reductions those who have committed sexual crimes against minors, unless a very specific mitigating circumstance set out in the Penal Code applies. However, the executive branch's defense argues that the restriction does not apply in these cases because the sentences predate the law's entry into force.

The response from the top court was swift. Supreme Court Chief Justice Gloria Ana Chevesich rejected the government's arguments and said the decrees were issued directly by Justice Minister Fernando Rabat, without any general ruling by the court that would endorse administrative decisions of this kind.

The conflict escalated further after it emerged that the executive had also reduced the sentences of people convicted of aggravated kidnapping and torture during Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship. Under political pressure, which includes threats of impeachment proceedings from the Christian Democrats, Minister Rabat announced a suspension of new decrees, although the move comes too late to reverse the situation for most beneficiaries, who are already free.