Latin America
Related: About this forumChile's far-right Kast leads in first round of presidential election as runoff looms
Chile is headed for a polarized presidential election runoff next month as hard-right former congressman José Antonio Kast held the lead in the first-round vote on Sunday ahead of leftist lawmaker and former protest leader Gabriel Boric.
With 80.54% of the vote counted, Kast, 55, had 28.15% versus 25.32% for Boric, 35 - although both were well short of the majority needed to win outright.
More moderate, center-right candidates performed well, a potential boost for Kast in the Dec. 19 runoff.
In a surprise, economist Franco Parisi, who is living in Alabama and did not set foot in Chile during the campaign, was in third place with over 13% of the vote.
Center-right candidate Sebastián Sichel and center-left Yasna Provoste were just behind, both with around 12%.
At: https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/chileans-head-polls-with-two-radically-different-visions-ballot-2021-11-21/
Social Convergence (left-wing) nominee Gabriel Boric and Republican (far-right) nominee José Kast during a recent presidential debate in Santiago, Chile.
The election, Chile's most divisive since its 1990 return to democracy, has split voters between those seeking a shake-up of the country's free-market model and those demanding a harder line against crime and immigration.
Boric led student protests in 2011 demanding improvements to Chile's education system, and has pledged to scrap the nation's laissez-faire economic model.
Kast, who belongs to the hard-right Catholic sect Opus Dei, has praised the neo-liberal "economic legacy" of former dictator Augusto Pinochet.
He has drawn frequent comparisons with former U.S. President Donald Trump and Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro.
Judi Lynn
(160,527 posts)Thanks, peppertree. 🌳
peppertree
(21,635 posts)Besides being the younger brother of Pinochet's worst Central Bank President, Miguel Kast - who presided over the country's 1982-83 collapse.
But Chile's best-known Nazi escapee son is its richest man, Horst Paulmann.
Paulmann is suspected of being a beneficiary of Nazi ratline investments:
he had a couple of grimy delis in Chile, and - almost overnight - went on to have the largest retail empire in South America.
As you know, that doesn't happen without a big-time (and secret) "angel" investor - least of all in South America.
Thanks as always for keeping up with all the comings and goings of Latin politics, Judi. Always lots of drama.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Judi Lynn
(160,527 posts)". . . Chile's best-known Nazi escapee son is its richest man, Horst Paulmann."
Mind-boggling and horrifying.
Wonderful turkey suit, however! Happy Thanksgiving to you, the best. 🍻