Major win for ultra-conservative gives Chile its most right-wing president in decades

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Chile’s ultra-conservative former lawmaker José Antonio Kast secured a stunning victory in the presidential election Sunday, defeating the candidate of the center-left governing coalition and setting the stage for the country’s most right-wing government in 35 years of democracy.

Kast won 58.2% of the votes as Chileans overwhelmingly embraced his pledge to crack down on increased crime, deport hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status and revive the sluggish economy of one of Latin America’s most stable and prosperous nations.

His challenger, communist candidate Jeannette Jara, clinched 41.8% of the vote. She called Kast to concede the election and congratulate him on his successful campaign after his lead became irreversible. Kast’s supporters erupted into cheers in the street, shouting his name and honking horns.

“Democracy spoke loud and clear,” Jara, who served as labor minister in the center-left government of President Gabriel Boric, wrote on social media.

Speaking at a public square in downtown Santiago, Chile’s capital, she encouraged her supporters not to be deterred by the outcome. “It is in defeat that we learn the most,” she said.

Kast was declared the winner less than two hours after polls closed. His campaign spokesman, Arturo Squella, struck a solemn tone, saying that the party feels “very responsible for the tremendous challenge of taking charge of the crises that Chile is going through.”

A regional trend gains traction

Chileans are not alone in their demand for radical change.

Kast’s election represents the latest in a string of votes that have turfed out incumbent governments across Latin America, vaulting right-wing leaders to power from Argentina to Bolivia as U.S. President Donald Trump looks to assert American dominance in the Western Hemisphere, in many cases punishing rivals and rewarding allies.

The Trump administration was among the first to congratulate Kast on his victory.

“Under his leadership, we are confident Chile will advance shared priorities to include strengthening public security, ending illegal immigration and revitalizing our commercial relationship,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

“The United States looks forward to working closely with his administration to deepen our partnership and promote shared prosperity in our hemisphere.”

A highly polarized election

The victory for Kast signaled a new era for Chile, representing the first radical right-wing president since the country returned democracy in 1990, following the bloody dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. Centrist parties on the right and the left have largely alternated power in the decades since.

On the surface, the two candidates in this tense presidential runoff could not have been more different, fundamentally disagreeing on weighty matters of the economy, social issues and the very purpose of government.

A lifelong member of Chile’s Communist Party who pioneered popular social welfare measures in Boric’s government and hails from a working-class family that protested against Pinochet’s 1973-1990 military dictatorship, Jara was a dramatic foil to her rival.

Kast, in contrast, is a devout Catholic and father of nine whose German-born father was a registered member of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party and whose brother served as a minister in the dictatorship.

Kast’s moral conservatism, including fierce opposition to same-sex marriage and abortion without exception, was rejected by many in the increasingly socially liberal country during his past two failed presidential bids.

But throughout Boric’s tenure, fears about uncontrolled illegal migration and unprecedented organized crime roiled the country, dominating this election and fueling support for a hard-line approach to insecurity.

Today his supporters run the gamut, including business people enthused about his free-market instincts, middle-class families scared of venturing out at night for fear of carjackings and extreme right-wing activists who glorify the military dictatorship.

Among those waiting for Kast to speak late Sunday after his victory were young Chileans holding up framed photos of Pinochet.