Chile election: Ultra-conservative's win gives nation its most right-wing president since dictatorship

José Antonio Kast, a conservative candidate, was elected Chile’s president Sunday, a sharp rightward swing for a country where voters have grown deeply concerned about security and illegal immigration.

Mr Kast, 59, a father of nine with ideological roots in conservative Roman Catholicism and economic neoliberalism, had campaigned on a tough-on-crime platform that had echoes of President Donald Trump’s political approach, promising to deport migrants living in the country illegally and build a barrier along Chile’s extensive northern border.

With over 98 per cent of the ballots counted, Mr Kast had obtained over 58 per cent of the vote, a resounding victory against Jeannette Jara, the candidate for the centre-left and a member of the Communist Party of Chile, who obtained about 42 per cent.

Outside Mr Kast’s headquarters in an upscale neighbourhood of Santiago on Sunday, as supporters wrapped in Chilean flags let out cheers, street vendors sold red caps reading “Make Chile Great Again,” while others went for the original MAGA hat.

Mr Kast’s election represents a clear reversal of the path of the left-wing administration of the current president, Gabriel Boric, and aligns Chile with other nations in the region, including Argentina and Bolivia, which have recently turned to the right.

“One more step for our region in the defence of life, freedom, and private property,” President Javier Milei of Argentina said on social media Sunday night. “I am sure that we will work together so that America embraces the ideas of freedom and we can free ourselves from the oppression of twenty-first century socialism…!!!”

In Chile, the shift was widely attributed to an anti-incumbent bias, but also reflected concerns about a surge in violent crimes that has deeply traumatized Chileans. Mr Kast put the issue at the forefront of his campaign.

Ms Jara, whom Mr Kast defeated, had served as the labour minister in President Boric’s government. Ms Jara was widely seen as the candidate most likely to continue the policies of the incumbent government, which is quite unpopular.

Mr Kast, whose earlier political career had been defined by a focus on conservative Catholic values, like opposition to abortion, has largely avoided referring to these divisive issues during this year’s presidential bid, which was his third.

He has instead denounced the 50 per cent increase in homicide victims in 2024 compared with 2018, largely attributed to the penetration of international criminal networks into the country. That emphasis resonated with Chileans, as nearly two-thirds of those questioned now consider crime their main preoccupation, double the global average, according to a recent Ipsos survey.

Their second major concern, polls show, is controlling immigration, another issue that Mr Kast has promised to vigorously crack down on. More than 300,000 migrants are living in the country illegally, according to estimates by Chile’s National Statistics Institute. Many have come from Venezuela.

“Security, drug trafficking, uncontrolled illegal immigration and criminal organizations are the great concern of the citizenry,” said Pablo Longueira, a veteran right-wing politician and former Chilean government minister. “These are the issues that defined this election.”

Though people who have committed crimes are only a tiny fraction of the migrants who have come to Chile fleeing economic collapse at home, Chilean police say the influx has also included gang members, whose victims are frequently other migrants.

Last month, Mr Kast warned migrants that they had 111 days left to self-deport before he took office, or that they would be deported once he was sworn in next March, and he continued to update the countdown at later rallies. If they self-deport, he said, they will be able to bring their belongings with them, instead of being detained and expelled. His warnings have created tensions at Chile’s borders, with some migrants trying to cross into Peru and José Jerí, Peru’s president, declaring a state of emergency in the area bordering Chile.

Mr Kast also promised to make illegal migration a crime in Chile and to build a “physical barrier” at the border, though local authorities near the frontier point out that the number of illegal entries has already significantly dropped.

“The issue of immigration must be resolved,” said Patricio Sepúlveda, 61, a Kast voter from Santiago. “If the solution needs to be one of greater force, so be it,” he added.

Mr Sepúlveda said that he hoped the Kast government would re-establish Chile’s friendships with countries like the United States, Israel or Argentina, whose right-wing leaders President Boric had criticized.

Mr Kast has also proposed to cut government spending by $US6 billion ($9b), but it remains unclear which programs will be affected.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.