José Antonio Kast was sworn in as Chile’s president on Wednesday in a ceremony at the National Congress in the coastal city of Valparaíso, attended by dozens of heads of state. The swearing-in followed the landslide victory he secured in December elections, and his Cabinet also took its oaths of office in the same event.
In his first speech as president Wednesday night, Kast pledged an “emergency government” aimed at combating crime and irregular migration. He said the country has “real adversaries,” including “those who have sown terror in neighborhoods,” and he added from the balcony at the La Moneda Palace in Santiago that people who “have entered by violating our borders to commit crimes, exploit others or turn our land into a no-man’s land are also adversaries of Chile.”
The ceremony drew a mix of regional leaders and other high-profile guests. Among those attending were Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Panama’s President José Raúl Mulino, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa and Spain’s King Felipe VI. Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado was also present.
The swearing-in also underscored political divides through notable absences. Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador were not at the ceremony, and the U.S. delegation that attended was described as modest, led by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.
As the new government took over, demonstrations unfolded in both Valparaíso and Santiago. Kast supporters waved flags and held banners reading “Long live Chile” and “President of change,” while police closed several subway stations in downtown Santiago as a security measure, according to the report. Supporters described the moment as a shift that would restore order, and some protesters framed their opposition in terms of resisting U.S. influence.
Melisa Muñoz, a 38-year-old secretary, told The Associated Press she came to support Kast because “Now is the time for unity,” adding that a large majority of the country voted for him. Jeanete Figueroa, 52, an administrator, said protesters who fear the change see it as a return to past repression, telling AP, “With Kast, it’s going to be like living back in the ‘80s,” and that she would “go back to the streets.” Another group of protesters marched against Kast and what they called American “imperialism.”
The inauguration reflects a wider political pattern across Latin America, with voters in multiple countries backing right-wing leaders and removing incumbents. Kast, who narrowly lost the presidency in 2021 to Gabriel Boric, campaigned this time with a hard-line agenda on crime and immigration that won the support of about 60% of voters, according to AP’s report—after Boric had faced criticism that his administration did not meet expectations.
The report also described how Kast has signaled alignment with the Trump administration and emphasized U.S.-centered security themes. It said Kast has praised the U.S. operation that culminated in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and that signals intensified recently when Kast abruptly ended the transition process after a clash with Boric over a project to install a submarine cable connecting Chile and China—an effort that drew criticism from the U.S. and further strained relations between Boric and Washington.
Chile’s relationship with the United States has “deteriorated significantly” under the second Trump administration, AP said, noting that Boric had been a vocal critic of his U.S. counterpart and characterized the Republican’s leadership style as that of a “new emperor.” The U.S. has signaled its preference for Kast, AP reported, including by inviting him to the “Shield of the Americas” summit in Miami last weekend, alongside other right-wing regional leaders including Bukele and Milei.