Sunday, November 16th marks the first round of Chile’s presidential election, where eight candidates are vying to succeed current left-wing president Gabriel Boric. Much like Bolivia earlier this year, voters appear poised to make a sharp turn to the right and may choose a drastically different direction for this South American nation of 20 million.
The themes dominating the campaign mirror those seen in the United States: rising crime, especially gang-related violence, and surging illegal immigration from countries such as Venezuela. These pressures have fueled calls for a tougher, “iron fist” approach to public safety, including proposals for mass deportations that echo Trump-era policies in the U.S.
The frontrunner in most polls is Jeannette Jara, a Communist Party member and former labor minister in the Boric administration. She is the race’s only left-wing candidate but has moved closer to the center on security, promising to build more jails, hire additional police officers, and deploy more technology at Chile’s borders.
Her opponents are spread across the right, led by two ultraconservative contenders: José Antonio Kast and Johannes Kaiser. Kast, who lost the 2021 election to Boric, has been labeled “Chile’s Trump” and leans heavily on similar rhetoric. He has called for border closures, the deportation of hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants, and the construction of walls and trenches along Chile’s northern frontier. Kaiser — a YouTuber positioned even further to the right — has floated hardline plans such as sending criminals and undocumented immigrants to CECOT, the notorious mega-prison in El Salvador.
While Jara holds a narrow lead heading into the first round, any candidate failing to break 50% will head to a December runoff. In that scenario, she would likely face a far tougher battle if the right unifies behind a single contender.
The final outcome may not be known for another month, but this election has already signaled a potential right-wing resurgence — one that would return conservatives to power for the first time in more than three decades. Either way, it is already being described as one of Chile’s most divisive and consequential campaigns in recent memory.
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