Welcome Back, Chile

By John Fund

Monday, December 15, 2025

 

The news that José Antonio Kast, a longtime free-market and anti-communist figure in Chile, won that country’s presidency in a landslide on Sunday was met with some interesting international reactions.

 

Nicolás Maduro, Venezuela’s dictator, had no official comment, though his diplomats privately scoffed that Chile was now back in the grip of “the United States empire” and would do its bidding.

 

Javier Milei, Argentina’s libertarian president, posted his enthusiastic support on social media: “One more step for our region in defence of life, liberty, and private property. I am sure we will work together so that the Americas embrace the ideas of freedom and we can free ourselves from the oppressive yoke of 21st-century socialism.”

 

Since his election in 2023, Milei has accomplished a renaissance of Argentina’s economy, and he can be pleased that his success inspired Chileans to move in his direction. So much so that Kast’s victory margin of 58 percent over left-winger Jeannette Jara’s 42 percent exceeded the twelve-point margin by which Milei beat the left-wing Peronists in 2023.

 

Chile and Argentina are but the latest examples of Latin American nations swinging to the right in the past two years. Ecuador, Bolivia, Venezuela, and Honduras have also seen the electoral defeat of left-wing administrations — although foreign observers note that Venezuela’s Maduro has remained in power only through massive voter fraud.

 

Kast’s victory hinged on three key issues that angered a majority of Chilean voters and on which he offered specific solutions.

 

Crime

 

In a 2025 Gallup survey on global safety, less than 40 percent of Chileans feel safe walking alone at night where they live.

 

As the New York Times has reported, Chile’s violent-crime rate grew during Covid and has remained high. The increase has been fueled in part by violent gangs and international criminal organizations that have infiltrated the country.

 

Immigration

 

Chile is a nation of 20 million people, of which at least 2 million are recent immigrants — of which a large chunk are illegal, putting a strain on social services. Criminal gangs recruit members from the ranks of illegals and also prey on Venezuelan immigrants crossing into Chile over its borders with Peru and Bolivia.

 

Economic Growth

 

From 1980 to 2020, Chile experienced an economic miracle. It peacefully emerged from a dictatorship and implemented free market policies that made it the richest country on the continent. Poverty fell from 45 percent to 6 percent of the population. Per capita income since 1990 tripled, to $24,000 a year.

 

That miracle was created by Chilean students of Milton Friedman. They created the freest economy in the developing world, built on a foundation of property rights, free trade, a low flat tax, private personal retirement accounts replacing the social-security system, and the deregulation of key industries.

 

But over those four decades, the left steadily infiltrated the nation’s cultural institutions: schools, universities, churches, and media. The result of this indoctrination, combined with growing concerns about inequality and hikes in tuition fees, led to the 2021 victory of 35-year-old former student-protester Gabriel Boric as the new president of Chile. The Communist Party became a part of his governing coalition.

 

Boric tried to implement his vision of “social justice.” But a constitutional rewrite he supported crashed and burned, 62 to 38 percent in a 2022 referendum. Boric’s economic policy saw an expansion of regulations and taxes. As a result, Chile’s economy stagnated, with today’s unemployment at 9 percent and economic growth at just over 2 percent.

 

Boric’s approval rating fell to below 30 percent. That gave José Antonio Kast, whose family played a role in shaping Chile’s economic reforms in the 1980s, an opening to run for president on a promise to return to Chile’s free market model. He proposed to trim regulations, cut corporate taxes, and slash public spending by 7 percent in just over one year. Kast has predicted the his program will increase growth to 4 percent a year.

 

Kast called his platform — crime, immigration, and economic growth — a three-legged stool that would “make Chile great again.”

 

He also loosened up his style from his two previous failed presidential races. Gone were endless speeches; in were short TikTok videos showing him actively campaigning. The playing of patriotic music at rallies was downplayed in favor of a Spotify “Disco Kast” called “la Fuerza del Cambio” — the Force of Change. It featured hard rock, K-pop, reggae, and reggaeton, and it won the top spot on Spotify’s Chile list.

 

Kast’s campaign did more than borrow from U.S. political tactics. Bloomberg reports that his landslide win “propels Chile into a U.S.-Led Conservative Orbit” that will find a friendly welcome in Donald Trump’s White House.

 

The Wall Street Journal editorial page agrees and suggests that Trump should help Kast by “reducing tariffs on Chile and making it a trade and economic partner.” Latin American voters who are embracing conservative policies and values deserve that helping hand. If their countries become strong and free, it will only help the U.S.’s security and economy.