Chile Elections José Antonio Kast wins decisively in the runoff

By John Merolla

Reporter Life News Today

José Antonio Kast, a 59-year-old conservative leader and leader of the Chilean far right, won the second round of the presidential election and was elected the new president of Chile. The leader of the Republican Party defeated the ruling party candidate Jeannette Jara, of the Communist Party, and will take office on March 11 to replace current President Gabriel Boric.

Chile, a country in South America, stands out in the region for its economic institutionality, its commercial openness and the solidity of its financial system, positioning itself as one of the markets most integrated into international trade in Latin America. The Chilean economy has mining as its central pillar, with copper as the main engine of exports and foreign exchange generation, and is complemented by sectors such as agribusiness, fishing, energy, services and trade, forming a relatively diversified productive structure oriented to the external market.

With 58.18% of the votes, Kast surpassed Jara by more than 16 percentage points, who obtained 41.82% of the votes. The result was categorical: the president-elect won in all the districts of the country. Meanwhile, null votes reached 5.84% and blank votes represented 1.23% of the total.

The election took place in a context marked by strong social concern about insecurity and irregular migration, two axes that dominated the public debate during the campaign. Since the mid-2000s, the Chilean political system has been characterized by a marked alternation between left-wing and right-wing governments, and since 2006 no president has managed to transfer power to a successor of the same political persuasion.

In recent years, the increase in crime and violence, a phenomenon historically alien to the Chilean reality, displaced the expectations of social transformation that had driven Boric's arrival to power after the social outburst of 2019. That promise of change, focused on the drafting of a new Constitution to replace the one inherited from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, failed to consolidate.

According to official figures, homicides grew by 140% in the last decade: the rate went from 2.5 to 6 murders per 100,000 inhabitants. Added to this was an increase in more serious crimes, such as kidnappings, which in 2023 reached 868 cases, 76% more than in 2021. Although Chile remains below regional averages, the emergence of organized crime and practices such as contract killings marked a break in its historical profile of low crime.

This scenario was capitalized on by Kast, whose campaign was structured around three central points: the fight against insecurity and drug trafficking, the fight against illegal immigration and the strengthening of the institutional order. During his victory speech, the president-elect said that his government will seek to "restore the law and respect for the law in all regions, without exceptions or political, administrative or judicial privileges," and reiterated his intention to toughen migration policies, including a plan to expel some 300,000 irregular migrants.

In economic matters, Kast proposed a fiscal adjustment of 6,000 million dollars to be carried out within 18 months, based on the containment of public spending and the review of administrative practices. On the pension front, he proposed eliminating the 1.5% contribution to the State incorporated in the reform promoted by Boric's government, under the slogan "bye loan". He also assured that the cut will not affect current social programs, such as the Universal Guaranteed Pension, and proposed eliminating the land tax for single housing.

In the area of security, he presented the so-called Relentless Plan, which includes the construction of maximum security prisons for drug trafficking leaders, the toughening of sentences for members of criminal gangs, the prohibition of "narco-funerals" and the creation of special forces to recover territories controlled by criminal organizations. While the plan takes a harsh tone, Kast ruled out advancing the death penalty, saying the most extreme penalty should be life in prison.

After the defeat in the second round, Jeannette Jara's main proposals were exposed. Her economic program was based on the continuity and deepening of the policies of Boric's government, with a focus on improving workers' incomes and reducing the impact of basic costs. Among the measures highlighted were the creation of a living income of 750,000 pesos per month, the limitation of the use of the Development Unit in sensitive areas such as health, education and rents, and the implementation of a Vital Electricity Consumption scheme to mitigate the cost of electricity rates.

On the labor front, Jara proposed moving towards collective bargaining by branch of activity, strengthening the role of unions and maintaining the guidelines of the pension reform. She also presented the "mortgage" plan, aimed at facilitating access to the first home for young people up to 40 years of age.

In terms of security, her approach differed from Kast's. The ruling party candidate proposed a strategy aimed at dismantling the financial structures of crime, promoting the lifting of bank secrecy to follow the route of illicit money, along with greater control of weapons, biometric records, use of technologies such as drones and artificial intelligence, and the reinforcement of municipal and private security.

Kast's triumph is also part of a regional context marked by an ideological shift to the right in Latin America, a trend that is also observed in countries such as Argentina, Paraguay, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia and Honduras.