Landslide win for Kast gives Chile its most right-wing president in decades

https://apnews.com/article/chile-elections-kast-jara-president-boric-trump-e9ef32b53359f3152ee80d62c106c5f6

Landslide win for Kast gives Chile its most right-wing president in decades
By ISABEL DEBRE and NAYARA BATSCHKE
Updated 9:03 PM CST, December 14, 2025

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. Kast’s supporters erupted into cheers in the street as results trickled in, shouting his name and honking horns.

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.

Kast 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 [Pinochet] dictatorship.

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