Far-right Kast wins Chile election landslide

SANTIAGO

Chile elected its most right-wing president in 35 years of democracy on Dec. 14, with arch-conservative Jose Antonio Kast scoring a thumping victory over his leftist runoff rival.

Kast won some 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 stalled economy.

"Chile wanted change" he told thousands of elated supporters 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 U.S. President Donald Trump.

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."