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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.
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