{"id":383896,"date":"2025-11-16T22:36:19","date_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:36:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/383896\/"},"modified":"2025-11-16T22:36:19","modified_gmt":"2025-11-16T22:36:19","slug":"chileans-vote-for-president-as-hard-right-gains-ground-on-crime-fears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/383896\/","title":{"rendered":"Chileans vote for president as hard right gains ground on crime fears"},"content":{"rendered":"

SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) \u2014 Chileans voted for a new president and parliament on Sunday in a contest expected to favor the hard right<\/a> as candidates play on popular fears over organized crime<\/a> and immigration.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the first of what\u2019s likely to be two rounds of presidential elections in the South American country, as polls show none of the candidates clearing the 50% threshold needed to avoid a runoff scheduled for Dec. 14. <\/p>\n

This also marks Chile\u2019s first presidential election since voting became mandatory and the registration of voters automatic, adding an element of unpredictability to the race and millions more apathetic voters \u2014 given past elections marked by abysmal turnout rates.<\/p>\n

Over 15.7 million people are now obliged to vote, and those who fail to do so face fines up to $100.<\/p>\n

Chile will also renew the entire lower house of Congress and part of the Senate.<\/p>\n

On the surface, the election offers Chileans a dramatic choice between two extremes: Jeannette Jara<\/a>, 51, a card-carrying communist and former labor minister in the left-wing government, and, among other right-wing contenders, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast, 59, an ultraconservative lawyer and Catholic father of nine who opposes abortion and vows to shrink the state.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe vote largely defines what our lives will be like for the next four years,\u201d Jara said as she cast her ballot in a northern suburb of Santiago, the capital.<\/p>\n

Two extremes pursue the center<\/p>\n

But the campaign has steered the starkly opposed front-runners toward the shared theme of public insecurity<\/a>, as anxiety about a rise in gang-driven crime<\/a> and a recent surge of immigration from crisis-stricken Venezuela<\/a> seizes voters\u2019 focus.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Presidential<\/p>\n

Presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party votes during general elections in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo\/Esteban Felix)<\/p>\n

Presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast of the Republican Party votes during general elections in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo\/Esteban Felix)<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey\u2019re vying for the center,\u201d said Rodolfo Disi, a political scientist at Chile\u2019s Adolfo Ib\u00e1\u00f1ez University, citing Jara\u2019s promotion of fiscal restraint and Kast\u2019s decision to drop the traditional-values pitch that defined his past two failed presidential bids.<\/p>\n

All front-runners have taken an iron-fisted approach to immigration. Chile\u2019s foreign population has doubled since 2017, with 1.6 million immigrants recorded last year in the nation of 18 million. An estimated 330,000 are undocumented.<\/p>\n

\u201cOn the right and the left, they think kicking out foreigners will solve everything,\u201d said Oscar Meina, 45, a Venezuelan among the more than 800,000 immigrants with residency of five years or more eligible to vote. \u201cIf it weren\u2019t for my democratic duty, I wouldn\u2019t vote for anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fractured right wing<\/p>\n

Polling behind Jara and Kast in the eight-candidate field are Johannes Kaiser, 49, a radical libertarian congressman and YouTuber, and Evelyn Matthei<\/a>, 72, a veteran center-right politician. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Presidential<\/p>\n

Presidential candidate Johannes Kaiser of the National Libertarian Party, votes during general elections in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo\/Cristobal Escobar)<\/p>\n

Presidential candidate Johannes Kaiser of the National Libertarian Party, votes during general elections in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo\/Cristobal Escobar)<\/p>\n

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Matthei appeals to voters wary of both Kast\u2019s culture war battles and the hard-line Chilean communist party\u2019s support for socialist governments in Venezuela and Cuba. <\/p>\n

\u201cOn paper Jara supports dictatorships in our region,\u201d Camila Roure, 29, said outside a polling station where she voted for Matthei. \u201cBut as a woman, Kast scares me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaiser, on the other hand, has recently courted Chile\u2019s radical voters disillusioned with Kast\u2019s effort to moderate his image.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s a straight-shooter,\u201d said Almando Marco, an accountant voting in an upscale Santiago neighborhood. \u201cHe doesn\u2019t twist things around.\u201d<\/p>\n

With the right-wing vote divided and President Gabriel Boric\u2019s<\/a> coalition united behind its former minister, most experts see the charismatic Jara prevailing in Sunday\u2019s first round. Boric is constitutionally barred from seeking a consecutive term.<\/p>\n

But an initial win for Jara may spell her defeat in a runoff against a right-wing rival who promises a harsher security crackdown.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want change, and that change today is about security,\u201d Jos\u00e9 Hern\u00e1ndez, the 60-year-old owner of a seed company, said after casting his ballot for Kast. \u201cThis stage of my life should be about enjoyment. Now I\u2019m home by 9 p.m. because of fear.\u201d<\/p>\n

Outdoing each other on security <\/p>\n

All candidates say it\u2019s a top priority to control illegal immigration and fight foreign gangs, like Venezuela\u2019s Tren de Aragua<\/a>, whose recent push into Chile has fueled new crimes and shattered the country\u2019s self-perception as far safer and more stable than the rest of the region.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe mafias, the narcos, the kidnappings, this was never part of our culture, these were never Chilean crimes,\u201d said Kenneth Bunker, a Chilean political analyst.<\/p>\n

Kast wants to build a massive wall along Chile\u2019s northern border and deport tens of thousands of people who entered illegally.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I believe most citizens expect is unity to confront the problems that afflict us today, which are problems of security,\u201d he said while voting on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Even Jara has sought to burnish her tough-on-crime credentials with promises to build new prisons and expel foreigners convicted of drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Presidential<\/p>\n

Presidential candidate Jeannette Jara of the Unidad por Chile coalition arrives to vote during general elections in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo\/Natacha Pisarenko)<\/p>\n

Presidential candidate Jeannette Jara of the Unidad por Chile coalition arrives to vote during general elections in Santiago, Chile, Sunday, Nov. 16, 2025. (AP Photo\/Natacha Pisarenko)<\/p>\n

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Matthei wants to deploy drones and more armed forces to the border. <\/p>\n

Kaiser wants to hold undocumented migrants in detention camps and bar their children from attending school. Supporters thronged the congressman as he voted on Sunday, shouting \u201cLong live Chile!\u201d<\/p>\n

High unemployment, sluggish growth<\/p>\n

As labor minister, Jara pioneered some of the government\u2019s landmark welfare measures, raising the minimum wage, boosting pensions and shortening the workweek to 40 from 45 hours. <\/p>\n

To address Chile\u2019s cost-of-living crisis \u2014 which in 2019 helped fuel the country\u2019s most significant social upheaval<\/a> since the 1990 fall of Gen. Augusto Pinochet\u2019s<\/a> dictatorship \u2014 she proposes a \u201cliving\u201d monthly income of around $800. But she also stresses the need to keep a lid on public debt. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a communist in name only,\u201d said Macarena Breke, 27, an English teacher voting in downtown Santiago Sunday. \u201cTo me, Jara isn\u2019t an ideological symbol; she\u2019s someone who gets things done.\u201d<\/p>\n

Taking a page from the playbook of President Javier Milei<\/a> in neighboring Argentina, Kast vows to shrink the public payroll and slash corporate taxes in a bid to revive a stagnant economy that has slowed the pace of job creation as immigrants flood the labor market. Unemployment hovers at a high 8.6%. <\/p>\n

He says he\u2019ll cut more than $6 billion in spending over 18 months \u2014 something that Matthei, an economist by training, calls \u201ctotally and absolutely impossible.\u201d Kaiser promises to go further by slashing up to $15 billion in spending.<\/p>\n

A nation transformed<\/p>\n

This law and order election stands in stark contrast to Chile in 2021, when Boric, a tattooed<\/a> ex-student protest leader, handily beat Kast in a runoff<\/a> as voters outraged over widening inequality backed the then-35-year-old\u2019s promises of sweeping social change.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Presidential<\/p>\n

Presidential candidates for the upcoming general elections are seen on TV screens during a debate in a hall of Televisi\u00f3n Nacional de Chile in Santiago, Chile, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Esteban Felix)<\/p>\n

Presidential candidates for the upcoming general elections are seen on TV screens during a debate in a hall of Televisi\u00f3n Nacional de Chile in Santiago, Chile, Monday, Nov. 10, 2025. (AP Photo\/Esteban Felix)<\/p>\n

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But post-pandemic economic constraints and legislative opposition restricted Boric\u2019s ambitions while carjackings, kidnappings and sex trafficking dominated TV news, stirring panic even as homicide rates have fallen in the last two years. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s convenient for certain politicians to sell the idea that the country is on fire, that everything is falling apart,\u201d said Loreta Sleir, a 27-year-old walking her dog to the polling station, where she said she would vote for Jara.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) \u2014 Chileans voted for a new president and parliament on Sunday in a contest expected…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":383897,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[3881,115334,183477,1613,4515,183472,30303,90,183475,133444,57,409,24720,183476,183471,183478,183480,606,1612,50,183479,80,183473,123137,183474,4217,32322,103,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-383896","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world","8":"tag-ap-top-news","9":"tag-augusto-pinochet","10":"tag-camila-roure","11":"tag-central-america","12":"tag-chile","13":"tag-chile-government","14":"tag-communism","15":"tag-elections","16":"tag-evelyn-matthei","17":"tag-gabriel-boric","18":"tag-general-news","19":"tag-immigration","20":"tag-javier-milei","21":"tag-johannes-kaiser","22":"tag-jos-antonio-kast","23":"tag-jos-hernndez","24":"tag-kenneth-bunker","25":"tag-labor","26":"tag-latin-america","27":"tag-news","28":"tag-oscar-meina","29":"tag-politics","30":"tag-rodolfo-disi","31":"tag-santiago","32":"tag-santiago-sunday","33":"tag-south-america","34":"tag-venezuela","35":"tag-world","36":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115561771483463199","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=383896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/383896\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/383897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=383896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=383896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=383896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}