Chile Shifts Right as Kast Elected     03/12 06:13

   

   VALPARAISO, Chile (AP) -- Far-right leader Jos Antonio Kast was sworn in as 
Chile's president Wednesday in the Latin American nation's most pronounced 
rightward shift since the return of democracy in 1990.

   In a ceremony at the National Congress in the coastal city of Valparaso 
that was attended by dozens of heads of state, Kast and his Cabinet took their 
oaths of office after a landslide victory in the December elections.

   Argentina's President Javier Milei, Panama's President Jos Ral Mulino, 
Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, and Spain's King Felipe VI were among the 
attendees. Other guests included Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mara Corina 
Machado.

   There were several high-profile absences, including Presidents Luiz Incio 
Lula da Silva of Brazil and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. A modest U.S. 
delegation was led by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.

   In his first speech as president Wednesday night, Kast said Chile has real 
adversaries, including "those who have sown terror in neighborhoods."

   Kast won his landslide election victory against communist candidate 
Jeannette Jara with the promise of fighting crime and curbing illegal 
immigration, similar to the aims of his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump.

   "And those who have entered by violating our borders to commit crimes, 
exploit others or turn our land into a no-man's land are also adversaries of 
Chile," Kast said from the balcony at the La Moneda Palace in the capital, 
Santiago. He added that the government "will not negotiate" with them and that 
he will pursue them and bring them to justice.

   Demonstrations for and against the new president unfolded outside Congress 
in Valparaso and the La Moneda Palace. Kast supporters waved flags and held 
banners reading "Long live Chile" and "President of change."

   "Now is the time for unity. After all, a large majority of the country voted 
for him, and that's why I came to support him," Melisa Muoz, a 38-year-old 
secretary, told The Associated Press.

   Meanwhile, another group of protesters marched against Kast and what they 
called American "imperialism." Police closed several subway stations in 
downtown Santiago as a security measure.

   "With Kast, it's going to be like living back in the '80s," Jeanete 
Figueroa, 52, an administrator, told AP, referring to the years Chile lived 
under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. "I lived through it in the 
'80s, I went out to protest, and now it's going to be exactly the same, I'll go 
back to the streets."

   A friend of Washington

   Chile is the latest Latin American country to vote out an incumbent 
government, with voters backing right-wing leaders from Argentina to Bolivia as 
Trump looks to assert U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere, in many cases 
punishing rivals and rewarding allies.

   While Kast has avoided commenting on controversial issues at home and 
abroad, he has made overtures to the Trump administration and praised the U.S. 
operation that culminated in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicols 
Maduro.

   These signals intensified recently when Kast abruptly ended the transition 
process following a clash with outgoing President Gabriel Boric over a project 
to install a submarine cable to connect Chile and China. The project drew 
intense criticism from the U.S. and further deepened the diplomatic tensions 
between the Boric administration and Washington.

   Relations between Chile and the United States have deteriorated 
significantly under the second Trump administration. Boric was a vocal critic 
of his U.S. counterpart, even characterizing the Republican's leadership style 
as that of a "new emperor."

   Trump openly signaled his preference for Kast over Boric, notably inviting 
Kast to last weekend's "Shield of the Americas" summit in Miami, which brought 
together several right-wing leaders in the region, including Bukele and Milei.

   Organized crime and immigration in the spotlight

   Kast narrowly lost the presidency in 2021 to Boric. At that time, his 
opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage -- along with his praise of the 
legacy and figure of Pinochet -- were largely rejected by Chileans.

   Four years later, his hard-line stance on crime and immigration won the 
support of about 60% of voters in a country hit by a rise in organized crime 
and disappointed by the great expectations that Boric raised but left 
unfulfilled.

   "He promised us many things, and then it was four years of disappointment," 
Yamila Martinez, a 31-year-old warehouse assistant, told The Associated Press.