By Satyaki Chakraborty
Far right politician Jose Antonio Kast was sworn in as the new President of Chile on March 10 indicating the biggest shift in the politics of the Latin American nation since the return of democracy in 1990. In the last 36 years, the Left or Centre-Left dominated the politics of the country but the situation changed last year .In December 2025 Presidential election, Kast won a landslide victory defeating the communist candidate Jeannette Jara with the promise of fighting crime and curbing illegal immigration.
Jara was the nominee of the erstwhile ruling coalition of the Left led by Gabriel Boric. She topped the first round but in the second round, the anti-Left voters got united leading to the big defeating of the ruling coalition candidate. Accordingly Kast took over the presidency on March 10. Latin America saw another victory of the Right in the first presidential elections in Costa Rica when the Right candidate Laura Fernandes was elected president with a big margin by defeating the closest centrist and another candidate of the Left. This was the beginning of the Right wing win in Latin America. Now the next Was the taking over of Antonio Kast in Chile.
The taking over of Kast as the new President in Chile has completely changed the shape of the foreign policy of the nation. Kast has made friendly overtures to Trump and given his open support to the capture of Venezuelan President Nicholas Maduro. Kast is also planning to cancel a project approved by former Leftwing President Gabriel Boric to install a submarine cable to connect Chile to China. Political observers of Latin America think that Antonio Kast is realigning the foreign policy of Chile as per the National Security Strategy of Trump.
Significantly, coinciding with the taking over of Kast as the President in Chile, in another country of the Latin American region, Paraguay, on Tuesday, the chamber of deputies approved a defence agreement allowing the temporary presence of U.S. troops inside the border. Trump’s close adviser on Latin America is expected to sign the deal on behalf of USA.
In 2026, on the lines of the National Security Strategy released by the Pentagon on December 4 last year, the ruling regimes are being pressurized to act on the lines mentioned in the NSS. In Latin America, the politics is polarized between the Right and the Left and through the present century, there has been shift of power in a number of countries from one camp to the other. But earlier, there was a shift in favour of the Left regimes and that phase was called Pink Tide. That phase is withering away with the latest Presidential elections results in the region.
While Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America, violent crime has spiked in recent years as organized crime groups have taken root, capitalizing on the country’s porous northern desert borders with coca-producing neighbors Peru and Bolivia, major international marine ports, and surge of migrants, many from Venezuela, susceptible to human and sex trafficking. Kast on his election manifesto focused most on his plans to curb crimes and immigration. This must have helped him at the fag end of the campaign and led to the transfer of all the votes of other right wing contestants in the first round.
Chile is the world’s largest copper producer and a major producer of lithium, and expectations of less regulation and market-friendly policies have already buoyed the local stock market, peso currency and equity benchmark. Kast has promised liberalisation of regulations in respect of the control of the public sector industries. He also promised to impose strict restrictions on the entry of immigrants in search of jobs in Chile.
Seasoned analysts say that the US National Security Strategy announced on December 4 had also its impact on the Chilean middle class who felt that there would be bitter political turmoil in the event of a communist winning the Presidential polls. Kast is known as a Trump man and his supporters have given the slogan of Make Chile Great Again on the lines of Trump’s MAGA programme. Kast has been saying that he will bring golden age in Chile in cooperation with the US led by President Trump. This also must have swayed a section who were not otherwise friendly with Kast’s party.
For the Latin American left regimes who are facing Presidential elections in the coming months, the major task is to unite the anti Right non left centrist sections to its fold. The experience is that if there is an anti-Left consolidation, the Right always wins. That should not be allowed. Three more important elections are due in Latin America in 2026. Peru on April 12, Columbia on May 31 and Brazil on October 4. All these Presidential polls will be held under high level pressure from the Trump administration. The ruling Leftwing governments will have to be ready with their own plan of action. (IPA Service)
