Medellín, Colombia – José Antonio Kast was sworn in today as the new president of Chile, inaugurating the country’s first far-right government since the fall of Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship in 1990.
Kast beat Jeanette Jara from the Communist Party last December, winning 58% in second-round polls following a campaign focused on law and order and tackling illegal immigration through mass deportations.
He succeeds left-wing president Gabriel Boric, forming part of a broader right-wing wave across the Americas.
Chile’s new president resembles U.S President Donald Trump in his approach to certain policy matters, such as his promises to curb illegal immigration, increase mass deportations and even build border walls.
Kast is a controversial figure: his father was a member of the Nazi party, and he was raised deeply conservative.
While studying law at the Universidad Católica, he was mentored by Jaime Guzmán, who was a trusted advisor of Pinochet.
Kast is now the first president to defend the legacy of Pinochet, and he has suggested that the dictator would have supported his candidacy. He has also appointed two ex-Pinochet lawyers, Fernando Barros and Fernando Rabat, to his cabinet as Minister of Defence and Minister of Justice and Human Rights, respectively. This move has drawn criticism from human rights groups.
Kast previously failed in a 2022 bid for the presidency, losing to Boric. Boric, however, was a deeply unpopular president, with polling from July 2025 highlighting a 66% disapproval rating.
Kast recently withdrew from transition talks with his predecessor, claiming that he had not been informed about the construction of an underwater sea cable connecting Chile and China. The spat raised concerns regarding democratic transfer of power.
Kast is part of a growing right-wing coalition across the Americas, supported by Trump, who has announced a return of the Monroe Doctrine, which maintains Washington’s dominance across the Western Hemisphere.
Before assuming office, Kast attended Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” summit on Saturday alongside other Latin American leaders, signalling his eagerness to cooperate with Washington in its invigorated counter-narcotics strategy.
His swearing-in ceremony, held in the coastal city of Valparaíso, was attended by many prominent political figures from the Americas, including conservative leaders like Ecuador’s Daniel Noboa and Argentina’s Javier Milei.
The left-wing president of Brazil, Lula Inácio da Silva, canceled at the last minute after finding out that his potential rival in the next elections, Flávio Bolsonaro – the son of jailed former president Jair Bolsonaro – would be attending.
Venezuelan opposition figure, María Corina Machado, also attended the inauguration, posting on X that she was excited to meet with Venezuelans in Chile during her visit.
Kast has singled out Venezuelan immigrants, having centered his campaign on fighting irregular migration through mass deportation with his “Border Shield” plan; it references “hundreds of thousands of illegals, bringing with them crime, narcotrafficking, human trafficking and gun smuggling, and labor exploitation”. Migrants represent almost 10% of the population in Chile, the largest group being Venezuelans – 17% of which entered irregularly, according to El País. Despite this, figures shared by the Minister of Defense, Adriano Delpiano, indicate that the number of irregular entries to Chile decreased by 54% between 2021 and 2025.
Despite Kast’s promises to restore public order amid rising crime, Chile remains one of the safest countries in Latin America.
Featured image description: José Antonio Kast in European Parliament
Featured image credit: @joseantoniokast via X.
