Far-right candidate José Antonio Kast won the Chilean presidential election by a wide margin, defeating leftist Jeannette Jara. With 83.4% of the votes counted, Kast, the founder of the Republican Party, secured 58.61% of the vote compared to Jara's 41.39%. He won in all 16 regions of the country, including left-wing strongholds like Valparaíso and the Metropolitan Region. A father of nine children and a devout Catholic, Kast will be sworn in on March 11, receiving the presidential sash from his 2021 opponent, progressive Gabriel Boric. Kast, who campaigned in favor of General Augusto Pinochet's continuity in the 1988 plebiscite, is the first Pinochet supporter to reach La Moneda in democracy. His victory, the second largest since the return to democracy, means he will face a legislature without a majority for his bloc. Kast has promised the mass expulsion of migrants, criminalizing migration, and building maximum-security prisons for drug trafficking leaders. "We are very proud of the work done, and very responsible for this tremendous sacrifice of taking charge of the crises that Chile is going through," said his right-hand man, Arturo Squella.
