José Antonio Kast’s victory is part of a series of recent far-right victories in Latin America, including in Argentina and Ecuador
Far-right candidate José Antonio Kast won the second round of elections in Chile, becoming the country’s 38th president. Overthrow the center-left government currently in power.
Kast stood out in the preliminary count, defeating former Labor Minister Jeannette Jara, a politician from the Communist Party, which represented the center-left coalition in power.
Kast obtained 58.30% of the votes in the second round, against her rival’s 41.70%, with more than 95% of the votes counted.
Jara and his coalition, called Unity for Chile, have already come to recognize their defeat. “Democracy spoke loudly and clearly. I just spoke to the elected president to wish him success, for the good of Chile”, wrote Jara on social media.
The result marks the latest victory for the far right in Latin America, which has seen a series of right-wing leaders, once outside the political spectrum, rise to power in countries such as Argentina and Ecuador.
It’s also a change of cycle for Kast, the 59-year-old leader of the Republican Party. This election was his third attempt to win the presidency.
Kast took advantage of the country’s growing frustration with rising crime, immigration and the weakening Chilean economy, dangling promises of change.
One of his promises involves a mass deportation campaign, similar to that implemented by the president of the United States of America, Donald Trump.
