World Tour: Chile turns right

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NICK EICHER, HOST: Coming up next on The World and Everything in It: WORLD Tour, a special report on elections in Chile.

On Sunday, the country held its presidential runoff elections, and swung conservative.

WORLD Associate Correspondent Elisa Palumbo has the story.

ELISA PALUMBO: Following the rightward trend of many of its South American neighbors, Chile has officially elected a conservative president: 59-year-old lawyer and devout Catholic, Jose Antonio Kast.

POST-ELECTION: [People Cheering/saying “Long Live Chile!”]

JOSE ANTONIO KAST: [Spanish] Y este es el día de la alegría. . .

Some say he is the most right-wing candidate to hold office since dictator Augusto Pinochet left office in 1990. This was Kast’s third time running for president.

Kast campaigned on Trump-like promises to build a wall at the northern border, use military presence, and deport illegal immigrants. He also wants to reduce the size of the government, following the example of his Argentinian counterpart, Javier Milei. His victory shows that for many Chileans, security was a deciding factor.

Growing illegal immigration from Venezuela and Colombia has led to a rise in violence, organized crime, carjackings, and kidnappings in what used to be one of South America’s safest countries. And the steady uptick of crime has changed the lives of many Chileans.

In 2024 alone, over 850 kidnappings were reported, the most recorded in over a decade. A report from Ipsos found that 63 percent of the Chilean population now lives in fear of crime. This is more than double the global average in other countries.

Chile’s homicides rates are low compared to other Latin American countries, with 6 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants, but they’re much higher than they were a decade ago. Since 2015, homicides have increased 140 percent.

Though pundits originally favored communist candidate Jeannette Jara to win, the results of the first round of elections on November 16th indicated a more unified right than anticipated.

PETER HAKIM: The polling on Boric was down in the 33-34% range. There was nobody, sort of an immediate star emerging.

Peter Hakim is president emeritus and senior fellow of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank. He says Jara was competent and had celebrated successes… but her party did her no favors.

HAKIM: You know, communist is not exactly a great word to have on your T-shirt when you're playing politics in Chile.

Today, the biggest concern for voters is crime and immigration. In the last seven years, immigration has doubled in Chile. Statistics show 8.8 percent of the country’s population of 20 million are now foreign-born. And approximately 330,000 illegal immigrants currently live in Chile. Mike O’Brien is a strong Christian and former miner. He lives 70 kilometers outside of Santiago, Chile. He believes immigration grew significantly worse under Boric:

MIKE O’BRIEN: [Spanish] El parte de la campaña presidencial …

TRANSLATION: Part of Gabriel Boric’s presidential campaign, who is our current president since 2021, was related to this—to opening the doors, being a good partner, a good neighbor, and making it much easier to receive immigrants and give them the means to enter. But this message was taken very literally, because everything was really opened up and there was no control at all over the Chilean border.

Most of the illegal immigration comes from Venezuela and Colombia and enters through Chile’s northern border. Certain areas are now dominated by foreign gangs, like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua. O’Brien says illegal immigration has made the country feel more dangerous and pushed many to vote for the right.

O’BRIEN: [Spanish] La sensación de seguridad …

TRANSLATION (MARK REININGA): The sense of security among people is completely different. If you talk to someone on the street today, they feel totally unsafe regarding the actions of the police, and they believe there is much more freedom for criminals.

O’Brien also says the left’s voting records have frustrated many Chileans. Boric’s allies in congress consistently struck down laws that would have fought organized crime and terrorism.

O’BRIEN: [Spanish] Justamente la izquierda …

TRANSLATION: In fact, the left, over the last four years, has voted against all the bills related to the security of Chileans.

As a candidate, Jose Antonio Kast called Boric’s presidency the worst in Chile’s democratic history and reminded voters that Jara would be a continuation of it.

Some critics say Kast could become an authoritarian and curb personal freedoms with his right-wing views, his Catholic beliefs, and his pro-life stance. But O’Brien sees his policies as a return to tradition.

O’BRIEN: José Antonio Kast representa para muchas personas dicen la extrema derecha …

TRANSLATION: José Antonio Kast is considered by many to represent the far right, but to me, the far right has to do simply with respecting things that were respected from the beginning and that, in one way or another, have changed over time.

Despite fears of what Kast could do as he shrinks the government, many hope he will make Chile safe again.

That’s this week’s WORLD Tour. I’m Elisa Palumbo.

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