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On Sunday, Chileans will cast their ballots in the first round of a general election for president and Congress. It's a campaign that highlights the country's deep political polarization, and the alternatives in the presidential race could hardly be starker, as John Bartlett reports from the capital, Santiago.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #1: (Chanting in non-English language).
JOHN BARTLETT: In Chile right now, it feels like you can't turn a corner without running into a rally or campaign event.
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BARTLETT: Eight presidential candidates, ranging from the far left to far right, are vying to lead Chile into a new era.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: Four years after winning on a social justice agenda, President Gabriel Boric is leaving office. But now, public security has become the focus of the campaigns. Leading the polls in this first round of voting is Jeannette Jara, a Communist Party politician and former Boric minister.
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JEANNETTE JARA: Viva Chile.
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BARTLETT: Her program promises a minimum income of around $780 per month, cash transfers to workers and subsidies for small businesses.
FLORENCIA VARAS: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: "I feel like Jara is the candidate who is closest to the reality in Chile," Florencia Varas, a 23-year-old theater student, told me in the square in Maipu, a southern Santiago district.
VARAS: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: "Obviously, security is important, but I don't think everything they're saying is real. Chile is not a dangerous place."
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: (Speaking Spanish).
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BARTLETT: But not everyone sees it that way. On the right, concerns over crime and migration are driving a surge that could shape December's runoff, with many voters likely uniting behind ultra-conservative Jose Antonio Kast.
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BARTLETT: Kast, the Catholic father of nine, was roundly defeated by Boric in 2021's presidential election.
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JOSE ANTONIO KAST: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: At his campaign's closing rally in a cavernous concert venue in Santiago, thousands wave red, white and blue Chilean flags, and music blared as Kast outlined his plans for building hundreds of miles of border walls - a spectacle that had a distinctly Trumpean (ph) ring.
ROBERTO WEBER: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: Roberto Weber helped cofound Kast's Republican Party in 2017. He believes Chile's economy, security and health care can only be saved by Kast.
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BARTLETT: The greatest challenge to Kast is coming from even further to the right. Johannes Kaiser, a radical libertarian YouTuber known for mocking the victims of Chile's dictatorship and questioning women's right to vote, has gained a following that could shape the final round of the campaign in December.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: At Kaiser's closing rally, supporters wrapped in Chile flags sported Make Chile Great Again caps...
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JOHANNES KAISER: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: ...And others wore vicious anti-communist slogans on T-shirts and pins, while vendors sold mock ID cards featuring the image of Chile's former dictator, General Augusto Pinochet.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: One tattooed 26-year-old student, who asked not to be named for fear of retribution from the left, proudly explained that her anti-communist T-shirt, printed with the date of General Pinochet's coup d'etat, was a celebration of the freedom that his 17-year dictatorship brought Chile.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENT: (Speaking Spanish).
BARTLETT: As the national anthem struck up behind us, she explained that she finds Kaiser the most sensible and straight talking of the candidates.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD #2: (Singing in Spanish).
BARTLETT: If no candidate secures more than 50% of the vote to win outright on Sunday, as is expected, a runoff will be held on the 14 of December, and the most likely outcome is that Chileans will be left with a stark choice between the Communist Party's Jara and one of her two far-right rivals. Whatever the result on Sunday, a choice between two drastically different visions for the future will face Chileans in the second round.
For NPR News, I'm John Bartlett in Santiago, Chile. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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