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Kast: Who is Chile's new hard-right president? / Photo: © AFP/File
Kast: Who is Chile's new hard-right president?
Jose Antonio Kast became Chile's president on his third attempt, becoming the country's most right-wing leader in over three decades by pledging a firm hand on security and order.
The 60-year-old lawyer and father of nine vowed to deport hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, mostly Venezuelans.
"Pack your things and leave," he told them on the eve of the vote.
Kast claims immigration is a plot by the "radical left" to end freedoms and that immigrants are taking homes, hospital beds and government funds from Chileans.
They "told us that they can't close the borders and now we can't open our windows for fear of violence," he said.
His message struck a chord with voters who blame a sharp increase in the migrant population for insecurity, even though statistics show Chile still being one of Latin America's safest countries.
Born in Santiago, Kast studied law at the city's Catholic university and has been a politician for 30 years.
His legislative achievements were limited to passing laws allowing the construction of statues, the sale of reading glasses without a prescription and the regulation of lotteries.
- Opposed to abortion, same-sex marriage -
A staunch Catholic, he broke from Chile's mainstream conservative party in 2016 to found the more radical Republican Party.
He opposes abortion in cases of rape, and is against emergency contraception, divorce, same-sex marriage and euthanasia.
He once forbade his lawyer wife, Maria Pia Adriasola, from using birth control pills.
He has expressed admiration for the 1973-1990 dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, a general who was responsible for the deaths of more than 3,000 Chileans.
The youngest of 10 siblings, Kast inherited a successful sausage business from his German immigrant parents.
Media investigations revealed his father to have been a member of the Nazi Party who fought in World War II.
Kast has said it was a forced conscription and he did not believe in Nazi ideology.
During the campaign, Kast has appeared behind bulletproof glass and admitted to carrying a revolver.
- More conservative, less charismatic -
Still, biographer Amanda Marton described him as "sober, pragmatic, calm compared to other far-right leaders."
Unlike Brazil's former president Jair Bolsonaro, Argentina's current leader Javier Milei or the United States's Donald Trump, Kast is seen as reserved and cautious.
"He's far more conservative and lacks charisma," said Robert Funk, a political scientist at the University of Chile.
Supporters say a calm demeanor is part of his appeal.
But former colleagues describe him as authoritarian: "You're with him or against him," recalled journalist Lily Zuniga.
"He feels born for greatness," Zuniga said.
In his winning run, Kast downplayed his conservative agenda and focused on security and migration.
But some of his cabinet picks have since spurred fears of a rollback in basic rights.
He named two lawyers that defended Pinochet to the defense and justice posts, and his incoming women's affairs minister is an evangelical anti-abortion activist.
His rise comes amid a conservative wave sweeping Latin America and after Trump's re-election in the United States.
It also comes as Trump attempts to force Latin American countries to choose between close ties with China, Chile's closest trading partner, and the United States.
Kast was among 12 Latin American leaders who attended Trump's "Shield of the Americas" summit in Florida last weekend.
T.Martin--SFF
