'Chile Is Back': Conservative President José Antonio Kast Touts Reforms

Chilean President José Antonio Kast used his first-ever address as head of state to the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday to condemn the socialist policies of his predecessors and promise would-be investors that a conservative Chile was worth betting on.

“I have come to this forum that Chile is back. That it is not a slogan – it is the reality of a country now beginning to walk towards development,” Kast, who has been in office for about six months following the term of hardline socialist Gabriel Boric, declared.

Kast was one of a host of conservative Western Hemisphere presidents addressing the General Assembly on its first day this year, alongside Presidents Donald Trump of America and Keiko Fujimori of Peru. The increase in the number of right-wing governments participating in the event redirected the United Nations’ event themes away from typical subjects such as the “climate crisis” and global governance and towards conversations about fighting organized crime, protecting sovereignty from globalist interests, and eradicating terrorism.

Kast noted in his remarks that his new policies were strict on border security and have resulted in significant deportations of foreigners illegally present in Chile, as well as enhanced support for law enforcement and a focus on organized crime. He described his country as “broken” in the years of socialist governance, and even “center-right” presidents such as the late Sebastián Piñera, but expressed optimism for the future of his country and his continent, describing the next decade as driven by the Western Hemisphere.

Kast presented a bleak image of his country under Piñera and, later, Boric, beginning with the widespread Marxist riots of 2019 and 2020.

“Chile got stuck. Chile made bad decisions. Public policies were promoted that increased taxes, regulations, and the obstacles for entrepreneurs,” he explained. “We also passed through very hard times in October 2019. At that moment, Chile was broken. In our streets, a violent unrest installed itself where chaos reigned and disorder was imposed.”

Kast emphasized that his philosophy as a leader was: “Order is not contrary to freedom. Order is one of the conditions for freedom.”

“Freedom to be able to return home peacefully and not be a victim of crime. Freedom to do business and not be encumbered by the actions of the state. Freedom to invest and not face the continuous change of the rules of the game,” he explained.

“We have been in the government for 6 months and we are getting our house in order,” the president promised.

He touted the elimination of several onerous regulations on business investment was well as significant deportations, declaring, “to enter Chile you have to come through the door, not the window.” His message was not just inviting the world to invest in Chile, however, but, observing the rise in conservative governments in Latin America, to expect great things from the region as a whole.

“Our continent, Latin America … the next decade could be ours,” the president predicted.

“For the first time in a long time, Latin American governments are coordinating for real, not just through statements, but getting to know each other and articulating each other to generate concrete actions against organized transnational crime, [for] migration control, and forging development opportunities today,” he explained. “Latin America is the continent of the future and those of us who lead the continent today are willing to push for that change.”

He further flagged Chile’s relationships with conservative governments in neighboring Peru, Bolivia, and Argentina as positive, and acknowledged the removal of criminal dictator Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela. He asserted that Santiago would engage Caracas under interim “president” Delcy Rodríguez, but not legitimize her, stating, “Some will tell us not to recognize that change, others will tell us to align unconditionally with it. Chile will do neither.”

“We recognize reality as it is, we value the change where it exists, and we offer companionship,” he continued. “We consider that Venezuela has before it an historic opportunity to reunite with its best democratic traditions, with its institutions, with its millions of dispersed children now scattered across the continent.”

Prior to the American arrest of dictator Maduro in January, Kast had been publicly supportive of American military intervention to save the Venezuelan people from the violent socialist dictatorship that has repressed them for over two decades and continues to do so.

“Clearly we cannot intervene in that because we are a small country,” Kast said less than a month before the Maduro arrest, “but if someone is going to do it, have it be clear to them that they would solve for us and for all of Latin America, for all of South America, a giant problem.”

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