the difficult question that promises to end crime and irregular immigration

“I am José Antonio Kast, I want to be President of the Republic so that the real change that you need in your family, that real change that our country needs, becomes a reality.”

With these words, the ultra-conservative leader ended his participation in the last television debate against the ruling party Jeannette Jara last Tuesday. Two days later, at a major event in Temuco, in the south of the country, where he put an end to a dizzying and rapid presidential campaign, he reiterated the idea that he had pursued like a mantra in recent months: if he came to power, he would give a strong turnaround in the countryEnding crime and restarting economic growth are two of the main demands here.

The 59-year-old lawyer and former ultra-Catholic lawmaker joins the wave of far-right leaders ruling parts of the world, becoming the first Pinochetista to come to power in Chile since the return to democracy.

Married to the lawyer Pía Adriasola, 59, with whom he has nine children, he is the founder of the Republican Party, is close to the right-wing extremist Spanish movement VOX and shares similar visions as the presidents of the United States, Donald Trump, Argentina, Javier Milei, or the former president of Brazil, Jair Bolsonaro.

With his suggestions from Zero tolerance against illegal migration and crime won the support of more than half of Chileans, who expressed fear of growing crime in the country thanks to drug trafficking groups that have crossed the border in recent years.

He also praised the example of Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, where he visited the maximum-security mega-prison that houses feared gang leaders but where serious human rights abuses have been reported.

“If all Chileans had to vote today and Bukele was on the ballot, they would vote for Bukele,” he said during a televised debate last week.

In his third attempt to become president – he ran in 2021 in 2017 – Kast was pragmatic, avoiding talking about values ​​and focusing his speech on the two or three crucial issues such as security, immigration and the economy.

If four years ago Kast was sharply questioned for his extreme positions, such as his opposition to the abortion law, equal marriage or his complacent attitude towards the military dictatorship – he voted “yes” for the continuity of Augusto Pinochet in the 1988 referendum – it is the same this time he moderated his speech and during the election campaign he avoided referring to these sensitive issues. He declined to be interviewed and refused to take part in two of the four debates scheduled between the first and second rounds of voting.

Instead, it focused on fighting crime and irregular migration, the two main concerns of citizens in a country hit by a surge in urban violence and where there are estimated to be around 330,000 undocumented immigrants, which many have linked to the rise in crime.

Kast promises an “emergency government”The measures include the expansion of legitimate defense, the “legal presumption of defense” in critical cases, and police and military operations to reclaim areas “under the control of drug traffickers.”

It also proposes turning irregular migration into a crime, encouraging mass displacement and reinforcing borders by building “fences, walls and ditches”.

In 2021, Kast was the candidate with the most votes in the first round, but was defeated in the runoff by Gabriel Boric, in a climate of popular discontent following the massive 2019 protests demanding structural reforms and the draft of a new constitution, in the most violent unrest since the return of democracy in 1990.

In the election campaign that has just ended, this time there was hardly any mention of his sympathy for the legacy of the Pinochet regime or the Pinochet regime Allegations that his father was a Nazi.

Despite his attempt to deny these claims, he argued that his father had been “forcibly included” in an investigation The Associated Press showed that his father, Michael Kast, had joined Adolf Hitler’s party at the age of 18 in a Germany where military service was compulsory but membership in the Nazi Party was voluntary.

Born and raised in Paine, on the outskirts of Santiago, he is the son of a German couple who came to Chile in the 1950s after Germany’s defeat in World War II. Kast explained that his parents were farmers without university education who came with “a lot of struggle.”

After raising capital with a chicken business, Michael Kast opened a major sausage factory in 1964, which enabled them to become a wealthy and influential family in the region.

Jose Antonio He is the youngest of ten siblings and hopes to carry on the legacy of his influential political clan. He is the brother of the now deceased economist Miguel Kast Rist, who was, among other things, Minister of Labor (1980–1982) and President of the Central Bank (1982) under Pinochet.

He is also the uncle of a senator, a representative and a former city councilman.

His political career began in 1996 when he joined the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), a right-wing party founded by lawyer Jaime Guzmán, who had been an ally of the military government.

In the same year he was elected as a city councilor and then served as a UDI MP for three consecutive terms between 2002 and 2014.

He quit the party in 2016 because he thought the traditional right was “too soft,” and a year later he entered the presidential race for the first time. As an independent candidate, he received less than 8% of the vote, but he has since gained ground and established himself as an influential political figure since 2019 after founding the Republican Party, which unites veteran right-wing militants and independents.

Now he promises to be the president of “all Chileans.” This Monday he will start working on the changeover. Here many are waiting to see what the Kast president will be like.