On Tuesday, 20 October 2026, the PPD national board rejected the Socialismo Democrático parliamentary committee’s decision to take senator Pedro Araya off the Senate Constitution Committee. The statement: the power sits with the committee, in the Senate; “it has not gone through the parties and, as PPD, we do not share it.” A party position, not a floor vote.

The committee, led by senator Juan Luis Castro (PS), replaced Araya with Vlado Mirosevic, of the Liberal Party. Emol: he also loses the committee chair. The request went to the Senate secretary, Luis Rojas, under article 30 of the rules. That is a caucus move, not a law.

La Tercera: the senators on the committee, including the PPD ones, backed the measure; the party leadership, with deputy Raúl Soto, learned otherwise. Two PPD floors. The Socialismo Democrático caucus said it was a joint decision, not a unilateral PS one, and that it was not taken behind the PPD’s back. The caucus statement and the board’s do not coincide.

The reason, in the reporting: Araya, from Antofagasta, had drawn closer to the government on the constitutional security reform. The committee wants an opposition majority that “exists on paper but is not reflected in the votes.” Closeness is not a judged betrayal. The PPD’s autonomy to weigh security bills remains, the board says, “according to what we consider best for the country.”

The board asks the senators to talk through their differences, “unity in diversity.” Interior minister Claudio Alvarado recalled the March agreement on committee chairs and the Senate board. His hope is not a recorded rupture. Next year’s Senate presidency, for a socialist, is an agreement, not Tuesday’s election.

Araya called on Castro to say why he was removed. The demand is not an answer. No one was voted on the floor. No one was stripped of a Senate seat.

Image: the National Congress building, Valparaíso, 3 September 2023, Carlos Figueroa Rojas, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. The building in 2023, not Tuesday’s committee.

Sources consulted: PPD board rejects senator Araya’s removal from the Constitution Committee — La Tercera; PPD board rejects senator Araya’s departure from the Constitution Committee — Emol.