Chile Swings Right as Crime and Migration Fears Rewrite Hope
In Chile, the election of José Antonio Kast signals a rightward turn powered less by ideology than by anxiety about crime, migration, and control. Behind promises of walls and deportations, families and migrants measure safety, belonging, and the costs of fear.
A Mirage of Stability Breaks
From the outside, Chile still reads as a “safer, more stable haven” in Latin America. Inside, the mood has shifted: carjackings, thefts, and organized crime are discussed like the weather. On Sunday, voters translated that anxiety into a mandate by electing José Antonio Kast.
Kast, 59, has praised General Augusto Pinochet, whose US-backed coup ushered in 17 years of military rule marked by torture, disappearances, and censorship. Critics point to his German-born father’s membership in the Nazi Party and a brother who served as a minister under Pinochet. Some supporters defend that era as more peaceful. In his victory speech, he promised an “emergency government” but not “authoritarianism,” the BBC reported.
When Migration Becomes the Suspect
The BBC framed Chile’s result as part of a rightward swing after Argentina and elsewhere, with Peru, Colombia, and Brazil voting next year. Kast’s victory may pull Chile toward US President Donald Trump on migration and security, a familiar template for leaders who campaign on restoring order.
By 2023, government figures show nearly two million non-nationals in Chile, a 46% increase from 2018. Authorities estimate about 336,000 undocumented migrants, many from Venezuela. Kast promised a border wall and mass deportations, warning at rallies that people without papers should leave before the inauguration if they ever wanted the chance to return.
In interviews with the BBC, Jeremías Alonso said, “Chile was not prepared to receive the wave of immigration it did.” He denied xenophobia and argued, “foreigners should come to Chile… but they should enter properly through the door, not through the window,” saying undocumented migrants strain public services. In his working-class neighborhood, he said, irregular immigration brought “crime, drug addiction, and security” concerns.
Fear then does what it does best: it assigns blame. Kast linked crime to immigration even as murders have fallen since peaking in 2022 and despite studies suggesting migrants commit fewer crimes on average. Journals like the Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies and Criminology describe how perceptions of insecurity can outrun data, especially when rumor becomes evidence.
The Iron Fist Meets Real Life
Gabriel Funez, a Venezuelan waiter, told the BBC he moved to Chile four years ago, crossing the land border irregularly to escape a “very, very bad economic situation.” After submitting documents, he received a temporary ID to pay taxes, but his visa request has had no response. His salary is paid into a friend’s bank account. “I’m basically a ghost here,” he said. He fears deportation, but worries more about xenophobia. “Kast is expressing what many Chileans want to express. He’s validating it,” he said. He recalled diners discussing how migrants should leave. “It was uncomfortable. I’m a foreigner, and I’m hearing all those super hurtful words.” He said about 90% of the restaurant’s staff are migrants.
Businesses quietly underline the contradiction. Carlos Alberto Cossio, a Bolivian who has lived in Chile for 35 years, told the BBC that “the migrant workforce is very important,” and described relying on workers from Haiti, Colombia, and Venezuela who are eager to work and less likely to switch jobs while waiting on visas. He added, “Many companies, especially in fruit harvesting, employ migrant workers who are not necessarily registered,” and warned that expelling them “will impact Chile’s export economy and make raw materials more expensive.” He also acknowledged cultural friction: “Many of the customs they have brought haven’t been compatible with Chilean customs,” he said, lamenting how it stains migrants who want to contribute. Meanwhile, Venezuela does not accept deportees from Chile, and deportations have been limited, while Kast’s party lacks a majority in Congress, meaning the politics of fear may deliver a performance of control faster than real control.
That is how Chile swung right: not by forgetting democracy, but by fearing what comes through the door after dark. If Kast governs by panic, the haven myth keeps collapsing. If he rebuilds trust, it could return again.
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