US EditionConservative's Victory in Chile Suggests a Hard-Right, Pro
Jose Antonio Kast won by mobilizing voter anger over crime, migration, and economic issues, reflecting a regional right-wing rise with about 25-30% electorate support, experts said.
- Jose Antonio Kast won the runoff in Santiago on Dec. 15, 2025, defeating Jeannette Jara, and Chilean President Gabriel Boric welcomed President-elect Kast the next day.
- Voters, traumatized by insecurity, angry about uncontrolled migration and frustrated with a dispiriting economy blamed the left for stagnation and corruption on Sunday.
- Supporters at Kast's victory rally in Santiago displayed U.S.-style MAGA imagery, waved American flags, wore 'Make Chile great again' caps, and raised Milei's slogan, 'The force of change,' while Kast echoed other global hard-right figures.
- Kast's campaign said he would fly to Buenos Aires on Tuesday to meet Javier Milei about security and immigration, while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Donald Trump engaged Kast on expanding ties and immigration.
- This outcome reflects a regional swing away from the earlier 'pink tide' as experts including Steven Levitsky say the new hard right underscores Donald Trump's influence despite holding only 25-30% electorates this year.
12 Articles
12 Articles
By Nayara Batschke, Santiago (AP) — With José Antonio Kast's victory, Chile has become the latest Latin American country to hold elections this year to shift to the right, cementing a regional trend that promotes law and order and border control at a time when the United States seeks to intensify its influence in the region. Kast, a 59-year-old lawyer with ideological roots in Catholicism and economic neoliberalism, won the support of nearly 60%…
‘Kast’s victory is a political and ethical earthquake’
‘Pinochet is smiling in his grave’Ariel Dorfman at The New York TimesAugusto Pinochet, the “strongman who imposed a reign of terror on Chile from 1973 to 1990, must be smiling in his grave,” says Ariel Dorfman, because his “brazen defender and admirer José Antonio Kast has just been elected president of Chile.” Kast’s “victory is not necessarily a public endorsement of his veneration for Pinochet.” But the “rehabilitation of one of the continent…
In Latin America, the left-wing governments are retreating in the face of the advance of right-wing regimes. José Antonio Kast's triumph in Chile, at the head of an extreme right-wing coalition, joins similar movements in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Honduras, Paraguay and Peru in the last two years.In addition to the international pressure from Washington against progressive governments, a combination of internal factors has been relevant in hi…
Donald Trump in the United States, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, Javier Milei in Argentina and, since 14 December, José Antonio Kast in Chile: the web of the far right and its right-wing supporters, particularly in Ecuador and Bolivia, now extends to the four corners of the Americas.
The recent presidential election in Chile was not another alternation in power. It represented a major political turning point and the abrupt closure of a cycle that dominated public debate over the last decade. José Antonio Kast's triumph was clear, broad and difficult to relativize. It was not a tight or circumstantial victory, but a clear national pronouncement. Official results confirm the magnitude of the outcome. Kast obtained 7,254,850 vo…
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 34% of the sources lean Left, 33% of the sources are Center, 33% of the sources lean Right
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
