Chile on Sunday elected its most right-wing president in 35 years of democracy, with arch-conservative Jose Antonio Kast scoring a thumping victory over his leftist runoff rival.
Kast won about 58 percent of the vote and held an unassailable lead over Jeannette Jara, a communist who headed a broad leftist coalition.
Kast campaigned on a promise to expel more than 300,000 immigrants, seal the northern border, take a “firm hand” on near-record crime rates and restart the economy.
Photo: Bloomberg
“Chile wanted change,” he told thousands of elated supporters on Sunday evening, vowing to “restore respect for the law,” while pledging to govern for all Chileans and to listen to critics.
Once one of the Americas’ safest countries, Chile was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, violent social protests and an influx of foreign organized crime groups.
In Santiago, Kast supporters beeped car horns, waved flags and cheered a man who has repeatedly defended the bloody dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Retiree Gina Mello hoped Kast would “deploy the military” to the streets from day one, “lock up all the drug traffickers and deport anyone who came here to commit crimes.”
Supporters sang the national anthem, chanted “Pinochet! Pinochet!” and clasped portraits of the late autocrat. Another Kast voter came dressed as US President Donald Trump.
Police said they detained one person in a small anti-Kast demonstration in the capital.
For Kast, a 59-year-old father of nine, it was third time lucky, after two failed attempts at the presidency.
It is the latest victory for Latin America’s right, after winning elections in Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador.
Quickly after the polls closed and the scale of the victory became clear, Jara called Kast to concede, saying voters had spoken “loud and clear.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Argentine President Javier Milei were among those who sent their congratulations.
Kast is to the right of most Chileans on many social issues, including abortion, which he opposes even in cases of rape.
However, many Chileans fed up with high crime and slow growth during four years of leftist rule said they would vote for change, despite misgivings.
Polls showed that more than 60 percent of Chileans thought security is the top issue facing the country.
While statistics show that violent crime — fueled by Venezuelan, Peruvian, Colombian and Ecuadoran gangs — has risen in the past 10 years, fears about crime have risen even faster.
Richard Kouyoumdjian, a security expert and former naval officer, said Kast would have to quickly develop a strategy to secure the border, strengthen the police, bring immigration under control and end an indigenous insurgency in the south.
“On security its very basic what he’s said,” Kouyoumdjian said. “It’s policy in 200 characters on Facebook or Twitter.”
Kast’s hardline positions have raised fears that he would try to rewrite the history of a dictatorship that tortured and imprisoned tens of thousands of people.
“I’m fearful because I think we are going to have a lot of repression,” 71-year-old retiree Cecilia Mora said.
“I see him as a Pinochet out of uniform,” she said.
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