The Ministry of Justice and Human Rights signed two decrees reducing the sentences of inmates at Punta Peuco prison in Til Til. One is convicted of aggravated kidnapping and the other of torture.
BioBioChile revealed the information based on an official letter from the Undersecretariat of Justice. The document lists three sentence reduction decrees for those offenses issued since March 11, when José Antonio Kast's government took office. The digital outlet Interferencia also obtained the two exempt decrees, according to Cambio21.
The third decree also concerns aggravated kidnapping. According to BioBioChile, the documents do not indicate where that person is serving their sentence.
The facility, officially named the Til Til Pretrial Detention Center, houses people convicted of human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. The letter does not identify the recipients or their cases. It also does not state how many months were deducted or what specific acts led to their sentences.
The information broadens the controversy facing Minister Fernando Rabat over the 56 sentence reductions for people convicted of sexual offenses against minors. That decision drew criticism from various political quarters, including former mayor Evelyn Matthei and opposition lawmakers.
Rabat justified those 56 cases by citing the 2022 legal reform and Supreme Court doctrine concerning acts committed before it. That argument concerns sexual offenses against minors and does not, on its own, explain the Til Til decrees.
The ministry maintains that it must grant reductions when the legal requirements are met. As it has explained, Law 19,856 allows sentences to be shortened for those who demonstrate outstanding behavior, provided no legal grounds for exclusion apply.
The procedure begins with the Prison Service, which prepares the list of applicants each year. A Sentence Reduction Commission evaluates them based on education, work, rehabilitation and conduct. The Regional Ministerial Secretariat (Seremi) of Justice then verifies the requirements and forwards the application to the ministry.
Finally, the ministry grants or denies the benefit through an exempt decree, using the wording "By order of the President of the Republic". The documents made available do not detail what information was reviewed in the Punta Peuco cases.
The reductions come amid debate over benefits for people convicted of crimes committed during the dictatorship. In July 2025, as a candidate, Kast expressed openness to pardoning elderly Punta Peuco prisoners or those with cognitive impairment, assessing each case separately.
In March, after taking office at La Moneda, he confirmed that he would issue pardons and did not rule out granting them to people convicted of human rights violations. In May 2026, he said his commitment was to review cases individually and that he had not promised pardons for everyone. Sentence reductions and pardons are distinct legal mechanisms.
For now, the Justice Ministry has not publicly disclosed the identities of the two Punta Peuco inmates or how much their sentences were reduced.
