Name: Far right eyes comeback as Chile holds presidential election
Uploaded: 2025-12-14T16:00:08.490Z
Duration: 1 min 55 s
Description: Chileans began voting for a new president Sunday, making a stark choice between the most right-wing candidate in 35 years of democracy and the head of a leftist coalition. Polls show far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast as the strong front-runner in the runoff vote.

Chileans began voting for a new president Sunday, making a stark choice between the most right-wing candidate in 35 years of democracy and the head of a leftist coalition. Polls show far-right candidate Jose Antonio Kast as the strong front-runner in the runoff vote.

Santiago

Chile is holding a presidential election in which far-right candidate José Antonio Cast is favored to win. Cast, who has expressed admiration for former dictator Augusto Pinochet, has campaigned on promises to address crime and immigration, despite Chile's relatively low crime rate. 

Cast's stance on reviewing the sentences of elderly inmates convicted of human rights abuses during the Pinochet regime has drawn criticism from victims' families and rights advocates. His main opponent, Jeanette Jara, is the current government's labor minister, but Cast is expected to receive support from a consolidated right-wing voter bloc.

Far right eyes comeback as Chile holds presidential election

General Augusto Pinochet took power in Chile in a violent coup in 1973. His 24 years in power were marked by the enforced disappearances of over 3,000 people whose faces are on this wall, and the torture of tens of thousands more, including journalists, union leaders and doctors, all perceived as enemies of the regime. Gabi Rivera's father was one of them. And today, she's fearful that José Antonio Cast, who has expressed fondness for the dictator, will win the presidency of her country. I think it's an absolute setback in the area of human rights. We're talking about a person who, for us, is almost unmentionable, because he's linked to what enforced disappearance meant. Cast is set to win the election Sunday, and has run on a strongman image to save the country that he has said is falling to pieces from crime and immigration, a major concern for voters despite a relatively low crime rate. The presidential hopeful said last week that he is in favor of reviewing the prison sentences of older inmates found guilty of crimes of the Pinochet regime, which some see as hypocritical. When Cast says he is going to pardon the human rights violators who enjoyed impunity for decades and who are now elderly, when they were arrested, prosecuted and convicted, they were already old, because they enjoyed impunity for so many years. His opponent, Jeanette Jara, is a labor minister for the current government and the first round of elections. But a right-wing grouping of voters whose candidates are no longer in the running are projected to lend their support to Cast.

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