José Antonio Kast appeared at the site along Chile’s northern border with Peru on Monday to inspect the trench and chat to construction workers, hailing it as the first step towards meeting his campaign promise to stem illegal immigration.

Only a small portion of the planned barrier has so far been cut into the arid Atacama desert – a ditch a few feet wide and deep.

It is one of several policies of Kast’s that echo pledges by US President Donald Trump – who has made constructing a wall at the Mexican border a common refrain at rallies and a crucial part of his own immigration policy.

aEchoing his rhetoric on the campaign trail, Kast said Chile had been “violated by illegal immigration, drug trafficking and organised crime”, adding that he wanted to used the diggers behind him to “build a sovereign Chile”.

“For all of Chile, this is a milestone,” he said while at the site, near the border town of Arica.

Kast has portrayed Chile as a country descending into chaos and insecurity, and prior to his election pledged to restore order and implement sharp spending cuts.

Chile is one of the safest and most stable countries in South America – but a rise in immigration and organised crime has spread concern among Chileans.

Chile’s foreign population has risen sharply in the past decade, jumping from less than 600,000 in 2015 to more than 1.5 million in 2024, according to World Bank data.

Its government estimates that about 336,000 of these are undocumented migrants, many from Venezuela.

The trench-digging on Monday marks the start of the “border shield” promise that helped Kast win the presidency by 58% in December.

Trenches and fences will compose the barrier, patrolled by military personnel. The Chilean government said surveillance systems and obstacles would also be installed to deter crossings.

The nation’s border with Peru spans around 180km and a further 900km with Bolivia – though its interior ministry has said the barrier will only cover roughly half of this.

The election of Kast, who succeeded left-winger Gabriel Boric as president, marks the nation’s most abrupt rightward shift since the end of its military dictatorship in 1990. He has openly praised Chile’s former right-wing dictator Augusto Pinochet.

Kast is also an admirer of Trump and the two appear poised to align on several issues including undocumented migration. As well as co-opting a number of the US president’s policies, Kast’s supporters have been seen wearing red “Make Chile Great Again” caps – a nod to Trump’s own Maga hats.

A state of emergency was declared, with a curfew in affected areas, where soldiers have been deployed.

The Viña del Mar festival, the largest music event in Latin America, has had its third day cancelled.

Hospitals and prisons across the country are on emergency generators and transport is severely disrupted. The government blamed a system failure.

Addressing the nation on TV, President Gabriel Boric said eight million homes had been affected, but power had been restored to about half of them.

“What happened today is outrageous,” he said. “It’s intolerable that one or several companies should affect the everyday life of millions of Chileans, and that’s why it’s the state’s duty to hold them responsible.”

The national service for disaster prevention and response said earlier that the outage stretched from the regions of Arica and Parinacota in the north to Los Lagos in the south.

Reuters news agency reported that the world’s largest copper mine, Escondida, was without power, citing a source close to the matter.

Latam Airlines said some of its flights might also be disrupted while power supplies were down, and urged passengers to check their journey status.

In a post on X, the Santiago Metro operator said its service had been temporarily suspended because of the power outage, with stations being evacuated and closed.

Footage from the city showed passengers being evacuated from stations by walking up switched-off escalators, while traffic signals were also shown not working.

There were also long queues for buses which were still running on the city’s roads.

María Angélica Román, 45, told AFP news agency: “They let us leave work because of the power cut, but now I don’t know how we will get home, because all the buses are full.”

Chile’s Interior Minister, Carolina Tohá, also posted on X to say that a meeting would be called to discuss the continuing measures to restore services.

The president said his visit to the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station reaffirmed Chile’s own claim to sovereignty over part of the Antarctic.

“This is a milestone for us,” Boric said in footage shown on Chilean television, before adding “it’s the first time a Chilean president has come to the South Pole and talked about Chile’s Antarctic mission”.

Boric travelled with a group of scientists and several cabinet members, including ministers for the armed forces and the environment, his office said.

Boric said his visit underlined Chile’s determination to play a key role in scientific projects in the area, especially those involving climate change.

In a statement, the government said research centres, universities, diplomats and the armed forces had united to ensure that Chile becomes the world’s gateway to the Antarctic.

Leftist President Gabriel Boric won Chile’s presidential election in 2021 to become the country’s youngest ever leader, at 35 years of age.

Only two other world leaders had visited the South Pole before Boric: the prime ministers of New Zealand and Norway.

Several countries, including Chile, the UK, France, Norway, Australia, New Zealand and Argentina, have laid claim to parts of Antarctica and many more have a presence there.

Antarctica is not a country: it has no government and no indigenous population. Instead, the entire continent is set aside as a scientific preserve.

The Antarctic Treaty, which came into force in 1961, enshrines an ideal of intellectual exchange.

The Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station is named after Roald Amundsen – the Norwegian explorer who led the first expedition to the South Pole – and also Robert Scott, the UK explorer whom Amundsen beat to the pole in 1911.

Scott and four companions died on the return leg of their trek after being caught in a blizzard.