Chile elected its most right-wing president in 35 years of democracy on Sunday, with arch-conservative Jose Antonio Kast scoring a thumping victory over his leftist run-off rival.
Kast won some 58 per cent of the vote and held an unassailable lead over Jeannette Jara, a communist who headed a broad leftist coalition.
Kast campaigned on a promise to expel more than 300,000 immigrants, seal the northern border, take a “firm hand” on near-record crime rates and restart the stalled economy.
“Chile wanted change” he told thousands of elated supporters Sunday evening, vowing to “restore respect for the law”, while pledging to govern for all Chileans and to listen to critics.
Once one of the Americas’ safest countries, Chile was hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic, violent social protests and an influx of foreign organised crime groups.