Far-Right Leader Sworn In As Chile's President, Marking Sharpest Shift To The Right In Decades
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The Trump-inspired political veteran won a landslide victory in December against government-backed communist candidate Jeannette Jara.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Far-right leader José Antonio Kast was sworn in Wednesday as Chile’s new president, marking the Latin American nation’s most pronounced shift to the right since the return of democracy in 1990.
In a ceremony at the National Congress in the coastal city of Valparaíso and attended by dozens of heads of state, Kast and his future Cabinet took their oaths of office months after the conservative’s landslide victory in the 2025 elections.
Among the high-raking officials attending Wednesday’s ceremony were Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and Spain’s King Felipe VI. Also attending was Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado and U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
The Trump-inspired political veteran won a landslide victory in December against government-backed communist candidate Jeannette Jara with the promise of fighting crime and curbing illegal immigration, a project that holds similarities to policies adopted by his U.S. counterpart.
On the international stage, the lawyer and leader of the Chilean Republican Party comes to power at a geopolitical crossroads, caught between the United States striving to regain its influence in Latin America and China, the main trading partner for both Chile and much of the region.
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Their entry into the war could pose a significant challenge to the embattled authorities in Tehran and could also risk pulling Iraq further into the conflict.
In a new text approved by Pope Leo, a top Vatican commission warned it can lead to an unrealistic search for a perfect figure.
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Ten people were killed when protesters breached the compound’s outer wall after the killing of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
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