Although one of the safest countries in Latin America, Chile has faced a rise in organized crime in recent years – a problem that was at the center of an election campaign in which the right and far-right imposed their security narrative.
President Gabriel Borić, who is of Croatian origin, cannot run for a second term due to constitutional restrictions.
Communist Jeannette Jara (51), the candidate of the ruling center-left coalition, is leading in the polls, but she is going to the elections in an unfavorable environment.
Although he enjoys more voter support than his far-right opponent José Antonio Casto, opinion polls predict a right-wing or far-right candidate to win in the second round.
José Antonio Kast (59), father of nine, is trying to become president for the third time.
In 2021, he was defeated by Gabriel Borić, who was elected on a wave of promises to implement deep social reforms and adopt a new constitution that would replace the one from the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973–1990). But after two failed attempts at constitutional reform and a rise in crime, often attributed to the arrival of foreign gangs, his ambitions have waned.
In such a context, more and more voters are looking for a strong government, with some going so far as to express nostalgia for the former dictator, responsible for more than 3,000 killed and missing. Kast, the founder of the far-right Republican Party, is the son of a German lieutenant who fled to South America after World War II. His father was a Nazi, and his brother was Pinochet’s minister, which reduced his chances in the last elections.
Libertarian Johannes Kaiser (49) won over some voters with promises to expel all illegal immigrants from the country.
Kaiser, like Kast, is of German descent and was once a member of its Republican Party. The candidate of the People’s Party (center-right) Franco Parisi said, on the other hand, that he could mine the border between Chile and Bolivia to stop immigration.
On the left, Jeannette Jara sought to play down her ties to the Communist Party, of which she has been a member since adolescence, saying she might leave it if she wins. The former minister of labor in Borić’s government advocates a policy of economic growth combined with social justice, while promising to strengthen the police and migration control.
(Vijesti.ba)
