Chile Runoff: Far-Right Kast vs. Leftist Jeannette Jara

SANTIAGO — Chileans head to a polarizing presidential runoff, choosing between far-right frontrunner José Antonio Kast and leftist Jeannette Jara, a Communist Party member and former labor minister. With voting compulsory, many say they will cast ballots for candidates who do not fully match their views, underscoring the election’s stark choices. At a final rally in Temuco, Kast repeated a security- and migration-focused message to thousands of supporters, drawing chants demanding communists be expelled and big applause for promises to deport migrants and lock up criminals. One 18-year-old first-time voter, Benjamín Sandoval, said he backed Kast primarily for his security agenda, expressing fear about attacks he blamed largely on migrants. Public concern over crime has become pronounced, fueled by intense media coverage. A 2024 Gallup report placed Chile sixth out of 144 countries for fear of walking alone at night, even as Chile remains among the safer countries in Latin America. Violent crime rose over the past four years, with homicides spiking in 2023 before falling recently. Large flows of migrants, notably from Venezuela, have also changed the national debate after hundreds of thousands arrived since 2018. Kast, 59, a Catholic and father of nine who leads the Partido Republicano, has built his campaign around those anxieties. He is the son of Michael Kast, who joined the Nazi Party before emigrating to Chile, and his brother Miguel served as a minister under Augusto Pinochet. José Antonio Kast began his public life supporting Pinochet in the 1988 plebiscite and has defended aspects of the dictatorship that presided over documented abuses. This cycle he has downplayed some socially divisive positions that hurt earlier runs and concentrated on security and migration. His economic proposals include cutting corporate taxes and reducing the public budget by about $6 billion in his first 18 months; he has also suggested dismissing many public workers hired under leftist President Gabriel Boric, but has offered few specifics on how his fiscal targets would be met. Jara, 51, is a long-time Communist Party activist who served in the governments of Michelle Bachelet and as Boric’s labor minister, where she championed pension changes, helped raise the minimum wage and shortened the workweek. Her campaign emphasizes affordability and social measures: a proposed universal core income around $800 a month, staged minimum-wage increases, lower electricity costs and state-run savings programs to help people aged about 25 to 40 buy homes. At her closing event in Santiago, supporters voiced identification with Jara’s agenda and rejected Kast’s rhetoric on gender and social issues. If polls hold and Kast wins, he would be Chile’s most right-wing president since Pinochet’s 1990 exit — part of a broader regional swing that has seen conservative and anti-establishment forces make gains in countries such as Bolivia, Argentina and Ecuador. The runoff therefore presents Chileans with sharply different visions: a security- and migration-centered program from the right versus a leftist platform focused on social and economic reforms.