Chile elects Jose Antonio Kast as president in sharp rightward shift
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Mr Jose Antonio Kast secured 59.16 per cent of the vote in a run-off with leftist candidate Jeannette Jara, on 40.84 per cent, with over 57 per cent of ballots counted.
PHOTO: AFP
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SANTIAGO - Mr Jose Antonio Kast won Chile’s presidential election
Mr Kast secured a commanding 58 per cent of the vote in a run-off with leftist candidate Jeannette Jara, who won 42 per cent and swiftly conceded.
Throughout his decades-long political career, Mr Kast has been a consistent hardliner.
He has proposed building border walls, deploying the military to high-crime areas, and deporting all migrants in the country illegally.
In a victory speech to a raucous crowd who waved Chilean flags at the headquarters of his Republican Party in the upscale neighbourhood of Las Condes in Santiago on the evening of Dec 14, Mr Kast pledged “real change.”
“Without security, there is no peace. Without peace, there is no democracy, and without democracy there is no freedom, and Chile will return to be free of crime, anxiety and fear,” he said.
But Mr Kast also pointed to the tricky path ahead, saying that there were “no magical solutions” and that changes would require perseverance and time.
His victory marks the latest win for a resurgent right wing in Latin America.
He joins Ecuador's Daniel Noboa, El Salvador's Nayib Bukele, and Argentina's Javier Milei.
In October, the election of centrist Rodrigo Paz ended almost two decades of socialist rule in Bolivia.
The campaign was Mr Kast’s third run at the presidency and second run-off, after losing to leftist President Gabriel Boric in 2021.
Once seen by many Chileans as too extreme, he has attracted voters who have become increasingly concerned by crime and immigration.
His definitive win, even in parts of Chile that traditionally vote for leftist candidates, was also likely driven by voter rejection of Ms Jara, who as a member of the Communist Party was seen by many as too extreme, said Dr Claudia Heiss, a political scientist at the University of Chile.
Mr Kast supporters arrived at the president-elect’s campaign headquarters in Santiago on the evening of Dec 14, waving Chile flags. Some wore red caps emblazoned “Make Chile Great Again.”
Mr Ignacio Segovia, a 23-year-old engineering student, was among them.
“I grew up in a peaceful Chile where you could go out in the street, you had no worry, you went out, and you never had problems or fear,” he said. “Now you can’t go out peacefully.”
While Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America, violent crime has spiked in recent years as organised crime groups have taken root, capitalising on the country’s porous northern desert borders with coca-producing neighbours Peru and Bolivia, major international marine ports, and surge of migrants susceptible to human and sex trafficking.
The vast majority of migrants in Chile illegally have arrived from Venezuela in recent years, government data shows.
Mr Kast’s proposals include creating a police force inspired by US Immigration Customs and Enforcement to rapidly detain and expel migrants in the country illegally.
He has also touted massive cuts in public spending.
Chile is the world’s largest copper producer and a major producer of lithium, and expectations of less regulation and market-friendly policies have already buoyed the local stock market, peso and equity benchmark.
However, Mr Kast’s more radical proposals are likely to face pushback from a divided Congress.
While right-wing parties won seats in both legislative houses in a November general election, most of those gains came from more traditional parties.
The Senate is evenly split between left and right-wing parties, while the swing vote in the lower legislative body belongs to the populist People's Party.
He will have to satisfy a wide electoral base, said Dr Guillermo Holzmann, a political analyst and professor at the University of Valparaiso.
“It is clear that not everyone who voted for Kast is from his party. That is, much of his vote is borrowed,” he said.
That fact may stay Mr Kast’s hand on policies like abortion.
He has previously been outspoken against abortion and the morning-after pill, but rarely spoke about it during the recent campaign.
Changing the country’s abortion laws would require the support of more than half of the Congress - and polls suggest most Chileans support existing rights. REUTERS
