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Chile leans to right in power shift
The Mercury
|December 17, 2025
CHILE has become the latest Latin American country to ditch the left after voters, driven by fears of crime and migration, elected at the weekend their first far-right leader since the end of a vicious military dictatorship in 1990.
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Leftist leaders have not won a single presidential election in Latin America this year as voters tired of economic woes and invigorated by strongman rhetoric in the style of US President Donald Trump or El Salvador's gang-busting leader Nayib Bukele, opt for change.
Chile was the latest domino to fall, with 59-year-old antiabortion, toughon-crime candidate Jose Antonio Kast taking 58% of the vote versus 42% for leftist rival Jeannette Jara.
"Kast's victory largely reflects ... disenchantment with all traditional political groups in Chile and Latin America," political analyst Michael Shifter of the Inter-American Dialogue think tank said.
This story is from the December 17, 2025 edition of The Mercury.
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