Chile saw its most dramatic political shift in decades when José Antonio Kast, a hard-right former legislator who ran on restoring public safety and tightening the nation’s borders, secured victory in a decisive vote Sunday.
Kast, who won 58% of the vote, takes office with a platform focused nearly exclusively on security and immigration, vowing what he calls the most robust public-order initiative in a generation.
The 59-year-old father of nine was born to a German immigrant family in Santiago. He served in Chile’s congress for years and ran for president in 2017 and 2021 before achieving success in 2025. His lengthy political career and well-known conservative stance made him a recognizable figure to voters, even as he positioned this campaign as a call for wide-ranging security reforms.
Echoing the message of the U.S. President, Kast has promised large-scale deportations of undocumented migrants, expanded police presence, and military deployment to tackle drug trafficking and organized crime. He contends that surging homicides and cartel activity require exceptional steps, such as giving irregular migrants deadlines to leave the country before facing forced removal.
His win mirrors a wider regional trend where voters are choosing candidates who prioritize crime reduction over ideological change.
Kast beat left-wing candidate Jeannette Jara, a former labor minister who campaigned on expanding social programs, bolstering workers’ rights, and raising taxes on high-income earners to fund new public benefits. Jara also supported a more permissive immigration policy and highlighted protections for women and LGBTQ Chileans — a stark contrast to Kast’s security-focused agenda.
“Here, no single person won, no party won — Chile won, and hope won,” Kast stated in his victory speech. “The hope of living without fear. That fear that plagues families.”
He added: “When we tell an irregular migrant they’re breaking the law and must leave our country if they ever want the opportunity to return, we mean it … We need to demonstrate strong resolve against crime, organized crime, impunity, and chaos.”
Kast had forecast his own win on Chilean radio following Trump’s U.S. election victory in 2024.
“We’re going to win too,” he said then.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio was rapid to commend Kast’s victory.
“Under his leadership, we’re confident Chile will pursue shared goals including enhancing public security, halting illegal immigration, and reviving our commercial ties,” he remarked.
Chile, long viewed as one of Latin America’s safest nations, has experienced a steep increase in violent crime over the past few years, partly due to the growth of transnational criminal groups and a spike in drug trafficking. Homicide rates have reached their highest in decades, and police report that groups like Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua have expanded extortion, kidnapping, and drug operations within the country.
The surge in violence has unsettled a population used to relative stability and made public security Chile’s leading political concern.
While Kast has long held strongly conservative views on abortion, gender policy, and same-sex marriage, he played down these issues during the campaign to widen his appeal. Instead, he focused on structural changes he claims are needed to address the security crisis, such as reducing parts of the bureaucracy, tightening Chile’s asylum system, and granting the presidency more power to respond to organized crime.
Kast also plans to guide Chile toward a more market-driven economic model, with tax cuts, deregulation, and increased mining development — especially in lithium and copper, two of the country’s key exports. He has indicated interest in deepening ties with the U.S. and other Western allies, even though China remains Chile’s biggest trading partner and a major purchaser of its mineral products.
Chile’s move to the right comes after a similar shift in neighboring Argentina, which elected libertarian firebrand Javier Milei on a platform of radical economic reform and political upheaval.
Yet the two leaders represent different branches of the right: Milei is an anti-establishment libertarian who excels at dramatic confrontation and broad proposals to overhaul Argentina’s economy, while Kast is a more traditional conservative focused on order, border control, and institutional authority. Their victories stem from similar voter frustrations but offer very different governing approaches.
Kast is also one of South America’s most vocal critics of , often citing Venezuela’s economic collapse and mass migration as warnings for Chile. He has accused Maduro of letting criminal networks grow and has directly connected Venezuela’s crisis to Chile’s migration and security problems.
His party’s lack of a congressional majority could delay or weaken parts of his agenda, but Kast’s decisive win indicates Chilean voters are ready to try his tough security strategy after years of political deadlock and growing public worry.