Test to Alvarado, Quiroz's about-face, and an unconfessable "ghost": This is how the first mobilization against Kast unfolded

Claudio Alvarado grows stronger as political chief In the early hours of Tuesday the 10th, the worst predictions for La Moneda were confirmed. The image of hundreds of trucks blocking the country's main highways over the fuel price increase confronted President José Antonio Kast with the first social protest of his eight months in office. The question running through the ruling coalition was which course would be followed. Throughout his political career, Kast has been categorical in criticizing public disorder and the violence of demonstrations, a stance he radicalized after the October 18th outbreak, and which today —now that he is in La Moneda— created uncertainty about what the government's reaction to the protests would be. "Let us not return to that past where our nation was destroyed. Let us not again allow someone to have to get out of a vehicle and dance in order to pass. That is unacceptable. And no one should be subjected to that," he said amid the truckers' traffic blockades, recalling the 2019 social outbreak. The precedent on the fuel price increase was severe: in March, when international oil prices rose, La Moneda decided to pass the impact on to citizens' pockets and modify the application of the Mepco. It was a decision that marked the new government's debut and gave unexpected prominence to Finance Minister Jorge Quiroz, who championed that thesis based on fiscal criteria. Eight months later, the scenario is completely different: at his lowest point in the polls, and with citizens' concerns focused on the economy —rather than on security as at the start of the government— the margin for action was small. The truckers' guild's anger made sense to a public battered by the cost of living. Santiago, November 11, 2026. The Truckers' Strike continues at various points in the Metropolitan Region due to the fuel price increase and a new increase that has been announced. Lo Aguirre sector on Route 68 in the commune of Pudahuel Diego Martin/Aton Chile DIEGO MARTIN/ATON CHILE The possibility of a multiplier effect tipped the balance toward placing at the head of resolving the conflict the dual minister of the Interior and Segegob, Claudio Alvarado, a politician known for his "negotiating skill." Alvarado —who in March lost the duel with Quiroz during the "gasolinazo"— today appears as the great winner of the truckers' crisis, given that the thesis of dialogue prevailed within the Executive over the impulse not to open the wallet in the face of citizens' demands. It is —in practice— a Copernican turn in La Moneda that was celebrated particularly in Chile Vamos, where the inclination toward a more rigid stance on mobilizations is associated with the republican DNA. Kast monitored the negotiations directly, but it was Alvarado and then Quiroz —who joined in the final stretch after a call from the President— who led the talks, which took place under the mandate that they had to be resolved before the President began a tour of Asia on Friday the 13th. The dual minister —who brings years of negotiations in various types of conflicts during the Piñera governments— was in his element: he set up three parallel tables in La Moneda, managing to keep the major players —the National Cargo Transport Confederation, headed by Sergio Pérez, and the National Confederation of Truck Owners, led by Juan Araya— from joining the mobilizations, while seeking formulas to get the Fuerza del Norte Transporters Confederation, led by Cristián Sandoval, and Freddy Martínez, of the Confederation of Truck Owners of the Central-Southern zone, to stand down. The agreement with the truckers forced the government to make concessions, as it includes a reduction of $142 per liter of diesel, limits on fuel price increases until March 2027, and greater tax benefits. The image was recorded for history: an embrace between dual minister Alvarado and the toughest figure in cargo transport, Cristián Sandoval, symbolized the end of the conflict. Beside them, Quiroz appears with a grim expression. The turn with a taste of defeat for Quiroz "Quiroz's face said it all" was the obligatory comment in La Moneda when the government's agreement with the truckers' guilds was announced, which represented a retreat from the fiscal criterion defended by the Finance Minister during the so-called "gasolinazo." The deal was estimated by Quiroz himself at approximately 700 million dollars (see interview in Pulso), considering this year and the next. The decision to open the fiscal wallet to quell the conflict is what placed the head of the economic team on the losing side, even though he had an active participation in the negotiations, which he carried out amid the discussion of the 2027 Budget that kept him "confined" in Congress at the start of the talks. In the Finance Ministry they acknowledge the "defeat" of the Quiroz of the government's early days, who shook the country's political and economic board with the so-called "gasolinazo" (March 26), which produced a sharp increase in fuel prices following the modification of the price stabilization mechanism (Mepco), on the argument that the international rise in oil prices could no longer be cushioned by the State. As expected, the measure produced an immediate drop in the popularity of the government and of President Kast. The situation worsened as fuel price increases continued. Now —however— those at Teatinos 120 maintain that several months in government have not left Kast's economic chief unscathed, and that various blows have made him take note that his decisions must also incorporate a political component. What matters —they affirm— will be the overall view of his management —they hope— at the end of Kast's government. The opposition did its part to hinder the Finance Minister's presence at the start of the conflict talks by denying Budget Director (Dipres) José Pablo Gómez entry to the Chamber of Deputies chamber where the 2027 Budget is being discussed. The decision meant that Quiroz was the only authority authorized to enter the hemicycle. From Valparaíso, Quiroz provided information to certify that the agreement reached had the backing of public resources. As the days went by and the talks did not become deadlocked, generating tension in La Moneda, Kast decided to call his economic chief to appear at La Moneda. On the afternoon of Thursday the 12th, the economist arrived and signed off on the final proposal. Before Alvarado sealed the agreement, Quiroz crossed over to his office at the Finance Ministry to analyze with his advisers whether the commitment had fiscal backing and legislative viability. When the numbers added up in his calculations, the minister returned to La Moneda to give the green light to the solution. It was so evident that Quiroz's grim expression at the staging that sealed the agreement with the truckers was interpreted as his discomfort with the chosen path to a solution, that the Secretariat of Communications (Secom) circulated a memo among ministers, party leaders, and ruling-coalition leaders in Parliament aimed at shielding the minister. The communications line indicated that thanks to the fiscal order —and savings— the government has maintained in its first eight months, it is possible, in an emergency situation, to make a concession. "We could not have arrived at this solution if a fiscal ordering plan had not been applied at the beginning of the year, which was led precisely by Minister Quiroz," says Senator Javier Macaya (UDI). The ghost of the social outbreak The complex scenario facing the government, particularly due to the economic situation, generates unease in the ruling coalition and in the cabinet. In these months in La Moneda, Kast has depleted much of the citizen support that installed him comfortably in La Moneda in March 2026. The unconfessable fear in government ranks is that a mobilization will spiral out of control and generate a copycat effect that ends up putting the government in check. During the four days the conflict persisted, La Moneda began monitoring with growing concern the TV coverage of the mobilizations. It was President Kast himself who voiced this concern on Thursday the 12th when, without naming the 2019 "social outbreak," he alluded to "a past where our nation was destroyed," asserting that the current situation must be faced "by everyone, not against some." Along those lines, Alvarado vindicated the "dialogue" formula when sealing the agreement hours later. It is the combination of the fragility of the Executive's current situation —with declining popularity levels and a minister under constitutional accusation— together with Kast's drive not to shy away from hard positions even when scenarios become polarized, that led not a few in the ruling coalition to breathe a sigh of relief when the style of dual minister Claudio Alvarado prevailed in the direction of the negotiations. The atomization of the truckers' movement For several months, the government had been in talks with the country's two main historic cargo transport confederations and their respective leaders. These are the National Cargo Transport Confederation (CNTC), chaired by Sergio Pérez, and the National Confederation of Truck Owners of Chile (CNDC), chaired by Juan Araya. Santiago, November 11, 2026. Leaders of the Fuerza del Norte Transporters Confederation and the Confederation of Truckers of Central-Southern Chile leave La Moneda after a meeting with government authorities. Dragomir Yankovic/Aton Chile DRAGOMIR YANKOVIC/ATON CHILE La Moneda seemed to have the discontent —over the sustained fuel price increase— under control in both groups, which on paper appeared to have an affinity with the government. The Executive's mistake was failing to perceive the current atomization of the guild and the gradual breakaway of the two large confederations, represented mainly by the Fuerza del Norte and Centro-Sur organizations, which question the representativeness of the historic entities and were the ones that lit the fuse of the mobilization. It was this scenario that forced La Moneda to divide the negotiations into three conversation tables set up by the government. The atomization of the cargo transporters' movement was one of La Moneda's lessons from this, its first street demonstration. And a clear signal —reflected in politics and in Parliament— of the current state of union and social movements, which complicates facing future negotiations. Since the return to democracy, the Concertación governments and their successors faced social conflicts —and the respective negotiations— with a single, or at most two, counterparts. There was the Central Unitaria de Trabajadores (CUT), the Teachers' Association, the National Association of Fiscal Employees (Anef), among other major workers' groupings. Today there are hundreds of organizations. For now, the national coordinator No+AFP has called a march in Plaza Italia for Saturday, November 28, insisting on its slogan of "recovering the savings to pay decent pensions," which some twenty union and social organizations have already joined. Among them, the Banking Confederation, the Anef, university health professionals, University of Chile employees, and the 8M Coordinator. Lack of a script In the first days of the stoppage, at least four ministers commented on the truckers' protests in very dissimilar tones. While the Agriculture Minister, Jaime Campos, said the strike was "deplorable and unpatriotic," his counterpart at Economy and Mining, Daniel Mas, called for dialogue. The Security Minister, Martín Arrau, meanwhile, stressed that the demonstrations should not affect citizens' right to free transit, and the Minister of Transport and Public Works, Louis De Grange, highlighted the ongoing dialogue with transporters since the start of the government. The cabinet's disorder contrasted with the spokespeople staying on a single line among the truck leaders and other movements such as No+Tag, which were reproduced on morning shows and television newscasts. At the beginning of the week, the presidential delegate of the Metropolitan Region, Germán Codina, was the most visible government figure in the field. However, the former mayor of Puente Alto had no answers to many questions related to the powers of other ministries. There is agreement that this was one of the factors that made the early containment of the conflict between the government and the mobilized guilds difficult.