José Antonio Kast won Chile’s presidential election on Sunday, exploiting voters’ fears over rising crime and immigration to lead the country into its sharpest shift to the right since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990.
Kast obtained 58.30% of the votes in the second round against left-wing candidate Jeannette Jara, who obtained 41.70%, with more than 95% of the votes counted.
“Democracy has spoken loud and clear,” Jara said, admitting defeat. “I spoke with José Antonio Kast and wished him every success for the good of Chile.”
Throughout his long political career, Kast has been a consistent far-right politician. He proposed building walls on the border, sending the military to areas with high crime rates and expelling all illegal migrants from the country.
His victory represents the latest triumph of the resurgent right in Latin America. He joins the Ecuadorian Daniel Noboa, the Salvadoran Nayib Bukele and the Argentinian Javier Milei. In October, the election of centrist Rodrigo Paz ended nearly two decades of socialist rule in Bolivia.
This was Kast’s third and second presidential run, following his defeat to left-wing President Gabriel Boric in 2021. Seen by many Chileans as too extremist, he attracted voters increasingly concerned about crime and immigration.
Supporters arrived at Kast’s campaign headquarters in Santiago on Sunday evening, waving Chilean flags. Some wore red caps reading “Make Chile Great Again.”
Ignacio Segovia, a 23-year-old engineering student, was among them. “I grew up in a peaceful Chile, where you could go out on the streets without worry, you went out without problems or fear,” he said. “Now you can’t leave in peace.”
KAST MAY FACE OPPOSITION FROM A DIVIDED CONGRESS
Although Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America, violent crime has increased significantly in recent years as organized crime groups have established themselves, taking advantage of the country’s porous desert borders in the north, major international seaports and the flow of immigrants vulnerable to human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
Government data shows that the vast majority of irregular immigrants to Chile have arrived from Venezuela in recent years.
Kast’s proposals include creating a police force modeled on U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to quickly arrest and deport immigrants who find themselves undocumented in the country.
He also advocated drastic cuts in public spending.
However, Kast’s more radical proposals will likely face resistance from a divided Congress. Although right-wing parties gained seats in both legislative chambers in November’s general election, most of these gains came from more traditional parties. The Senate is evenly divided between left- and right-wing parties, while the deciding vote in the lower house belongs to the populist-oriented People’s Party.
Chile is the world’s largest producer of copper and a major producer of lithium, and expectations of reduced regulation and more market-friendly policies have already boosted the peso and the stock market.
Kast has previously spoken out against abortion and the morning-after pill, but changing the nation’s abortion laws would require the support of more than half of Congress.
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