{"id":649042,"date":"2026-03-11T23:23:19","date_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:23:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649042\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T23:23:19","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T23:23:19","slug":"kast-sworn-in-as-president-in-chile","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649042\/","title":{"rendered":"Kast sworn in as president in Chile"},"content":{"rendered":"

VALPARA\u00cdSO, Chile (AP) \u2014 Far-right leader Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast<\/a> was sworn in as Chile\u2019s new president on Wednesday, marking the Latin American nation\u2019s most pronounced shift to the right since the return of democracy in 1990.<\/p>\n

In a ceremony at the National Congress in the coastal city of Valpara\u00edso and attended by dozens of heads of state, Kast and his Cabinet took the oaths of office after a landslide victory in the 2025 elections<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Among those attending the ceremony were Argentina\u2019s President Javier Milei, Panama\u2019s President Jos\u00e9 Ra\u00fal Mulino, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, and Spain\u2019s King Felipe VI<\/a>. Other guests included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mar\u00eda Corina Machado<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There were several high-profile absences, including Presidents Luiz In\u00e1cio Lula da Silva of Brazil<\/a> and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. A modest U.S. delegation was led by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.<\/p>\n

After the newly appointed Senate President Paulina N\u00fa\u00f1ez placed the presidential sash on Kast, the new Cabinet was sworn in. Jos\u00e9 Francisco P\u00e9rez Mackenna took the oath as chancellor, while Mar\u00eda Trinidad Steinert became the minister of security and Fernando Rabat assumed office as minister of justice and human rights.<\/p>\n

Gabriel Boric<\/a>, a left-winger who in 2022 became Chile\u2019s youngest president at 36, has left office as the worst-rated president since 1990, according to a survey published this week by the polling firm Cadem. More than half of those surveyed (53%) considered his government to be the worst since the return of democracy.<\/p>\n

Kast, a Trump-inspired political veteran<\/a>, won a landslide victory in December against government-backed communist candidate Jeannette Jara with the promise of fighting crime and curbing illegal immigration, a project that holds similarities to policies adopted by his U.S. counterpart.<\/p>\n

A friend of Washington<\/p>\n

Chile is the latest Latin American country to vote out an incumbent government, with voters backing right-wing leaders from Argentina<\/a> to Bolivia<\/a> as President Donald Trump<\/a> looks to assert U.S. dominance<\/a> in the Western Hemisphere, in many cases punishing rivals<\/a> and rewarding allies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

While Kast has avoided commenting on controversial issues at home and abroad, he has made overtures to the Trump administration and praised the U.S. operation that culminated in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>.<\/p>\n

These signals intensified recently when Kast abruptly ended the transition process following a clash with outgoing Boric over a project to install a submarine cable to connect Chile and China. The project drew intense criticism from the U.S.<\/a> and further deepened the diplomatic tensions between the Boric administration and Washington.<\/p>\n

Relations between Chile and the United States have deteriorated significantly under the second Trump administration. Boric was a vocal critic of his U.S. counterpart, even characterizing the Republican\u2019s leadership style as that of a \u201cnew emperor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Trump has openly signaled his preference for Kast over Boric, notably inviting Kast, then president-elect, to last weekend\u2019s \u201cShield of the Americas\u201d summit in Miami<\/a>, which brought together several right-wing leaders in the region, including Bukele and Milei.<\/p>\n

Organized crime and immigration in the spotlight<\/p>\n

Kast narrowly lost the presidency in 2021 to Boric in the runoff election. At that time, his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage \u2014 along with his praise of the legacy and figure of former dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet<\/a> \u2014 were largely rejected by Chileans.<\/p>\n

Four years later his hard-line stance on crime and immigration won the support of about 60% of voters in a country hit by a rise in organized crime<\/a> and disappointed by the great expectations that Boric raised but left unfulfilled.<\/p>\n

Kast has praised the crime-fighting tactics of Bukele<\/a>, even touring El Salvador\u2019s 40,000-capacity mega prison last year<\/a>. He has also vowed to criminalize illegal immigration, intensify mass deportations and install \u201cfences and walls\u201d along Chile\u2019s borders.<\/p>\n

First 100 days are key<\/p>\n

Experts suggest the new administration\u2019s responsiveness will be key in determining the government\u2019s course for the next four years, as it will have to deal with a divided Parliament to ensure governability and advance its main projects.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf there is volume, traction and a clear direction in the first 100 days, the political establishment generally seeks alignment or at least avoids hindering the administration\u2019s priorities,\u201d said Mariano Machado, an analyst with risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft. \u201cIf that clarity isn\u2019t seen in the first 100 days \u2026 the opposite happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

Follow AP\u2019s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/latin-america<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VALPARA\u00cdSO, Chile (AP) \u2014 Far-right leader Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast was sworn in as Chile\u2019s new president on Wednesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":649043,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5],"tags":[115334,2064,1613,4515,183472,119771,1226,110874,69,90,275746,133444,57,409,24720,183471,275748,1610,185224,1612,275745,107712,275744,275747,69716,50,92550,80,4217,322,226624,370,103,107],"class_list":["post-649042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-augusto-pinochet","tag-border-security","tag-central-america","tag-chile","tag-chile-government","tag-christopher-landau","tag-conservatism","tag-daniel-noboa","tag-donald-trump","tag-elections","tag-fernando-rabat","tag-gabriel-boric","tag-general-news","tag-immigration","tag-javier-milei","tag-jos-antonio-kast","tag-jos-francisco-prez-mackenna","tag-jos-ral-mulino","tag-king-felipe-vi","tag-latin-america","tag-luiz-incio-lula","tag-mara-corina-machado","tag-mara-trinidad-steinert","tag-mariano-machado","tag-nayib-bukele","tag-news","tag-nicolas-maduro","tag-politics","tag-south-america","tag-u-s-republican-party","tag-u-s-venezuela-conflict","tag-united-states-government","tag-world","tag-world-news"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":"Validation failed: Text character limit of 500 exceeded"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649042","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=649042"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649042\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649042"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649042"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649042"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}