<\/p>\n
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) \u2014 Chile’s ultra-conservative\u00a0former lawmaker Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast\u00a0secured a stunning victory in the presidential election Sunday, defeating the candidate of the center-left governing coalition and setting the stage for the country’s most\u00a0right-wing government\u00a0in 35 years of democracy.<\/p>\n
Kast won 58.2% of the votes as Chileans\u00a0overwhelmingly embraced his pledge to crack down\u00a0on increased crime, deport\u00a0hundreds of thousands of immigrants without legal status\u00a0and revive the sluggish economy of one of Latin America\u2019s most stable and prosperous nations. Kast\u2019s supporters erupted into cheers in the street as results trickled in, shouting his name and honking horns.<\/p>\n
His challenger,\u00a0communist candidate Jeannette Jara, clinched 41.8% of the vote.<\/p>\n
\u201cChile needs order \u2014 order in the streets, in the state, in the priorities that have been lost,\u201d Kast bellowed in a lengthy victory speech that included his tough-on-crime talking points but lacked his usual vitriol. When his supporters interrupted him to boo Jara, he cut them off and snapped, \u201cRespect!” \u2014 an about-face from his persona on the campaign trail.<\/p>\n
Kast hailed his decisive margin of victory on Sunday, saying it provided him with a \u201cbroad mandate” that was also \u201ca tremendous responsibility.”<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are inviting you on a journey to recover values for a proper and healthy life,\u201d he said. \u201cIt won\u2019t be easy. It requires everyone\u2019s commitment.”<\/p>\n
Speaking at a public square in Chile’s capital of Santiago, Jara, who served as labor minister in the center-left government of\u00a0President Gabriel Boric, encouraged her supporters not to be deterred by the outcome.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is in defeat that we learn the most,\u201d Jara said shortly after calling Kast to concede the election and congratulate him on his successful campaign.<\/p>\n
Chileans are not alone in their demand for radical change.<\/p>\n
Kast\u2019s election represents the latest in a string of votes that have turfed out incumbent governments across Latin America, vaulting right-wing\u00a0leaders to power from Argentina\u00a0to\u00a0Bolivia\u00a0as U.S.\u00a0President Donald Trump\u00a0looks to\u00a0assert American dominance\u00a0in the Western Hemisphere, in many cases\u00a0punishing rivals\u00a0and\u00a0rewarding allies.<\/p>\n
Argentina’s President Javier Milei, a radical libertarian closely aligned with Trump, was first to congratulate Kast on his victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe left recedes,\u201d he wrote on social media with a map of all the South American countries that had recently veered to the right.<\/p>\n
The Trump administration was also quick to praise Kast. \u201cUnder his leadership, we are confident Chile will advance shared priorities to include strengthening public security, ending illegal immigration and revitalizing our commercial relationship,\u201d U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) \u2014 Chile’s ultra-conservative\u00a0former lawmaker Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast\u00a0secured a stunning victory in the presidential election Sunday, defeating the candidate of the center-left governing coalition and setting the stage for the country’s most\u00a0right-wing government\u00a0in 35 years of democracy. Kast won 58.2% of the votes as Chileans\u00a0overwhelmingly embraced his pledge to crack down\u00a0on increased crime,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":12455,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[3390,1588,3389,3388,991,3391,196],"class_list":["post-12454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jesus","tag-chile","tag-decades","tag-kast","tag-landslide","tag-president","tag-rightwing","tag-win"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/biblelon.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}