Chile elected its most right-wing president in 35 years of democracy on Sunday, with arch-conservative Jose Antonio Kast scoring a thumping victory over his leftist runoff rival.

Kast won some 58 percent of the vote and held an unassailable lead over Jeannette Jara, a communist who headed a broad leftist coalition.

Kast campaigned on a promise to expel more than 300,000 immigrants, seal the northern border, take a “firm hand” on near-record crime rates and restart the stalled economy.

“Chile wanted change,” he told thousands of elated supporters Sunday evening, vowing to “restore respect for the law,” while pledging to govern for all Chileans and to listen to critics.

Once one of the Americas’ safest countries, Chile was hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, violent social protests and an influx of foreign organized crime groups.

It is the latest victory for Latin America’s right, after winning elections in Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador. Quickly after the polls closed and the scale of the victory became clear, Jara called Kast to concede, saying voters had spoken “loud and clear.”

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Argentina’s Javier Milei were among those who sent their congratulations.

Retiree Gina Mello hoped Kast would “deploy the military” to the streets from day one, “lock up all the drug traffickers and deport anyone who came here to commit........

© The Times of Israel