Chile’s Polarized Presidential Election Promises a Shake-Up
Leftist Gabriel Boric has a small polling edge over right-wing José Antonio Kast, but whoever wins faces a bumpy road ahead—as will global investors.
Boric, of the coalition Apruebo Dignidad, takes a selfie with members of his campaign and supporters in Santiago on Nov. 1.
Photographer: Esteban Felix/AP
One candidate is a 55-year-old father of nine, a strict Roman Catholic and free-market absolutist who praises the country’s previous dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet. The other is two decades younger, bearded, tattooed, and unmarried—a leftist out to battle inequality, aid Indigenous communities, squeeze big mining, and make abortion legal and free.
On Dec. 19, either rightist José Antonio Kast or leftist Gabriel Boric will be elected president of Chile and take the world’s biggest copper producer, a darling of international investors, down a path the other’s supporters will vehemently oppose. No matter who triumphs—early polls give the edge to Boric, a member of the lower house of Chile’s Congress—a country once seen as a model of neoliberal triumph is headed for rocky times.