The global shift toward law-and-order conservatives continued this past weekend as voters in Chile elected José Antonio Kast to be the country’s next president. Kast soundly defeated Communist Party candidate Jeannette Jara 58.1 percent to 41.8 percent – the second-largest victory in a runoff election since democracy returned to Chile in 1990.
Kast won all 16 regions of the country, solidifying his mandate. “We will work relentlessly to restore peace, order, growth, and hope,” Kast declared after his victory. “Chile will be free from crime again, free from anguish, free from fear.”
Conservative-leaning newspaper El Mundo described Kast’s victory as a “dramatic shift” following the tenure of outgoing President Gabriel Boric, the most left-wing leader in a generation. Kast built his campaign almost entirely on public safety and immigration enforcement – drawing immediate parallels with U.S. President Donald Trump. As one conservative commentator put it, “Chile chose a Trumpian president.”
Like Trump a year ago, Kast described his nation as one in “crisis” and in need of big reforms. He has proposed building border walls, deploying the military to high-crime areas, and deporting all migrants in the country illegally. By handing him this decisive victory, Chilean voters endorsed these reforms.
Kast’s victory was also a repudiation of Jara’s socialist platform and a clear statement of priorities from the Chilean people. While Kast did not reject that there is a role for government to play in providing essential education, welfare benefits, and healthcare, he stated that the key word is “essential.” The left, he argued, has gone far beyond what was actually essential, and in doing so neglected public safety, economic security, and national defense.
“Chile’s problem is the radical left that threw common sense to the winds in the interest of an untenable theory of ‘equity,’ which created a monstrously inefficient welfare system, the costs of which escalate year after year with no end in sight,” retired Professor of Economics Louis Alfonso Pinheiro told me. “The result is worse outcomes for the Chilean people.”
As a result of runaway government spending, Chile has experienced a significant inflation surge over the past several years, peaking at 14 percent in 2021. A recent study from Chile’s Universidad Catolica also found that the country loses an average of 2.6 percent of its GDP, or about $8.2 billion, annually due to rising crime.
An Ipsos poll last year found that 63 percent of Chileans fear crime, twice the global average. Homicides, kidnappings, and robberies are all on the rise as powerful transnational gangs like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua set up shop inside the country. Once one of the safest countries in South America, less than 40 percent of Chileans now say they feel safe walking at night. Homicides reached a record high of 1,322 in 2022, and fell only slightly to 1,207 in 2024 – still 43 percent higher than in 2018.
Jara proposed traditional left-leaning measures to address these issues, including stricter firearm controls, increased authority for government security agencies, expanded surveillance, and measures allowing the government to more easily access and seize bank account funds.
Kast, on the other hand, proposed stricter penalties for offenders, the separation of gang leaders from other inmates in prison, and restricted visitation rights. He plans to build at least 100,000 new prison beds over the next four years and hire 5,000 new correctional officers. Prior to his victory, Kast notably met with the security minister for President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, a nation that has famously gone from one of the most dangerous countries in Latin America to one of the safest by harshly cracking down on organized crime.
Kast has also argued that illegal immigration is a key factor in rising crime rates. The revelation that Venezuelan criminal gangs, including Tren de Aragua and Los Piratas, were involved in the murder of a Venezuelan dissident supported his claim. Venezuelans have become the fastest-growing foreign population in Chile over the past five years, more than doubling from 344,506 in 2018 to 728,586 in 2023. At least half arrived illegally.
Kast has said that illegal aliens will have three months to leave the country voluntarily. If they refuse to do so, they will be arrested, prosecuted, and either deported or imprisoned. “Chile has been invaded, but this is over,” Kast declared in one campaign ad.
The liberal media is already rolling out attacks on Kast, starting with the fact that his father was in the German military during World War II. While the media has attempted to portray Kast’s father as a vicious Nazi official, the reality is that he was a conscript into Hitler’s Wehrmacht, along with millions of other Germans. He fled to Chile in the 1950s. The real family legacy inherited from Kast’s father was his devout Catholic faith – Kast’s brother is a priest, and his late sister was a nun.
What truly scares the liberal establishment about José Kast isn’t his lineage, but rather what his victory represents in the broader scope of a global political realignment toward conservatives. Kast’s rise to power notably comes on the heels of Argentina’s La Libertad Avanza winning legislative elections earlier this year, boosting President Javier Milei’s influence in Congress. Bolivia has also recently ousted socialists who ruled the country for nearly 20 years, and Ecuador re-elected center-right leader Daniel Noboa in April.
Like Milei in Argentina, Kast will inherit a country with no shortage of problems, most notably high crime rates and illegal immigration. But as Milei – and Trump – are proving, even the biggest challenges are no match for a leader with the courage and willpower to take them on.
Ben Solis is the pen name of an international affairs journalist, historian, and researcher.
