SANTIAGO, Chile — Chile is headed to a tense presidential runoff after a closely fought first-round vote Sunday set up a showdown between a member of the Communist Party and an ultraconservative, pro-Trump veteran politician, sharply polarizing the country between left and right.
Jeannette Jara, 51, the communist former labor minister and candidate of Chile’s center-left governing coalition, claimed 26.7% of the vote with more than 90% of the ballots counted, falling well short of the 50% threshold needed to secure victory in the first round.
José Antonio Kast, 59, a hard-right former lawmaker and devout Catholic opposed to same-sex marriage and abortion, captured more than 24.1% of the vote, underscoring the resilience of his law-and-order platform as a surge in organized crime rattles one of Latin America’s safest nations and foments anti-migrant sentiment among Chileans.
After learning he would advance to the next round, Kast urged the fractured right-wing to unite behind him, framing the runoff as an existential struggle for Chile’s future.
“It will be the most important election of our generation, a true referendum between two models of society — the current one that has led Chile to destruction, stagnation, violence,” he told fans, interrupted by cheers every few seconds, before adding, “and our model, which promotes freedom, hope and progress.”
Jara had a very different message.
“This is a great country,” she told supporters in downtown Santiago, the capital. “Don’t let fear freeze your hearts.”
Crime, immigration boost the right
An admirer of President Trump and Brazil’s former President Jair Bolsonaro, Kast has vowed to deport tens of thousands of undocumented migrants and construct hundreds of miles of ditches and walls along Chile’s northern border with Bolivia to prevent people from crossing, particularly from crisis-stricken Venezuela.
“We want change, and that change today is about security,” José Hernández, the 60-year-old owner of an agricultural company, said after casting his ballot for Kast.
Although voters gave Jara a slight edge Sunday, Kast will benefit in the second round from a large share of votes that went to three eliminated right-wing challengers who campaigned aggressively on the need to tackle illegal immigration.
The third- and fourth-placed candidates were Franco Parisi, a right-leaning populist economist with a large social media following, and Johannes Kaiser, a radical libertarian and former YouTube provocateur elected lawmaker in 2021.
Chile’s constitution does not allow reelection to consecutive terms, so left-wing President Gabriel Boric, whose presidency ends in March, is not standing.
Like her opponents, Jara has called insecurity a top priority, promoting plans to deport foreigners convicted of drug trafficking, boost security along Chile’s borders and tackle money laundering.
“On the question of more jails, more punishments, more imprisonment, closing borders, restricting migrants, there is no debate anymore between the right and left,” said Lucía Dammert, a political scientist and Boric’s first chief of staff.
“But it’s an issue that always enhances the right, everywhere in Latin America.”
Winning over wary voters
The race now goes to a second round on Dec. 14. Analysts believe the starkly opposed finalists will tack to the middle to broaden their appeal.
“We will definitely see Jara and Kast after today being even more moderate, talking about things that voters care about and trying to compete for the center,” said Rodolfo Disi, a political scientist at Chile’s Adolfo Ibáñez University.
Over the next month, Jara faces the challenge of winning over voters concerned about her lifelong membership in Chile’s Communist Party, which supports authoritarian governments in Cuba and Venezuela. Jara came under fire early on in her campaign for referring to Cuba as a democracy.
“We liked her at first, but that moment was when our opinion shifted, it seemed like a really closed-minded view,” Camila Roure, 29, said outside a polling station. But as a woman, Roure said, she wouldn’t vote for Kast — given his history of opposition to divorce and abortion, even in cases of rape.
Although Kast has more recently sought to deflect attention from what he calls traditional family values and his German-born father’s Nazi past — which mobilized progressive voters against him during two previous failed presidential bids — he has made clear his views remain the same.
“A Kast government wouldn’t just be a political shift, it would be a huge step backward,” said Macarena Breke, 27, an English teacher voting for Jara.
Jara promises a social safety net
Boric, the young, tattooed ex-student protest leader who came to power in 2021 vowing to “bury neoliberalism” on the heels of mass unrest over inequality, has faced criticism from allies and rivals alike that his government failed to fulfill its sweeping promises of social change.
Economic discontent is simmering in one of Latin America’s most prosperous nations, with growth sluggish and unemployment up over 8.5%. The country retains its dictatorship-era constitution after voters rejected a government-backed charter that would have transformed Chile into one of the world’s most progressive societies.
But Boric’s government has several landmark welfare measures to its credit — many of them thanks to Jara.
As labor minister, she raised the minimum wage, boosted pensions and shortened the workweek to 40 from 45 hours.
“The right is trying to sell this idea that the country is collapsing. But I don’t see that,” said Loreta Sleir, a 27-year-old who voted for Jara.
To address Chile’s cost-of-living crisis — which in 2019 helped fuel the country’s most significant social upheaval — Jara proposes a “living” monthly income of around $800 through state subsidies and minimum wage hikes. She promises to invest in big infrastructure projects and new housing.
Kast promises to shrink the state
Kast proposes quite the opposite.
Taking a page from the playbook of President Javier Milei in neighboring Argentina, he vows to shrink the public payroll, eliminate government ministries, slash corporate taxes and get rid of regulations.
He says he’ll make a staggering $6 billion in spending cuts over 18 months — a bid which, even if far-fetched, appeals to voters disconcerted by repeated fiscal deficits.
“The money disappears, the left spends it [on] I don’t know what — human rights — and I can barely afford rent,” said Jorge Ruiz, 48, a cab driver who voted for Kast.
Chile’s 2% deficit this year pales in comparison to the economic woes elsewhere in the region — like in Argentina, where Trump recently helped halt a currency crisis.
But the repeated deficits are rare for a country long hailed as a regional success story for laissez-faire economics, a model established by Gen. Augusto Pinochet and sustained for decades after his bloody dictatorship’s downfall.
Debre and Batschke write for the Associated Press.
The post Chile’s presidential runoff is set between a communist and a pro-Trump ultraconservative appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
