Kast Sworn In as Chile's President

José Antonio Kast was sworn in as Chile’s president on March 11, 2026, marking a significant shift to the right for the country. The ceremony took place at the National Congress in Valparaíso and was attended by several heads of state, including Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, Argentine President Javier Milei, and Spain's King Felipe VI.

Kast won the presidency with nearly 60% of the votes against Jeannette Jara in a runoff election held in December 2025. His victory represents the most pronounced shift to the right since Chile's return to democracy in 1990. In his inaugural address, Kast pledged a tough stance on crime and immigration, stating, 'Starting today, things are going to change. Anyone who attacks a Carabinero attacks all of us, and I promise we will pursue them, find them, prosecute them and put them behind bars.'

The inauguration was marked by both domestic and international significance. Analysts noted that Kast's presidency would have to navigate an increasingly challenging geopolitical landscape. Mariano Machado of risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft commented, 'U.S.-China rivalry in Latin America has moved from rhetoric to implementation.' Guillermo Holzmann, a political analyst from the University of Valparaíso, added that Kast would have to manage an increasingly challenging international geopolitical landscape.

Kast's presidency is seen as a significant departure from recent political trends in Chile. Rodrigo Arellano, a political analyst at Chile's University of Development, noted that 'The new president will represent a conservative right wing unlike anything seen since the return to democracy (in 1990).' This shift is also reflected in Kast's official portrait unveiled on February 24, which showed him wearing a blue suit and presidential sash adorned with a conspicuous coat of arms stitched in the middle. No president since the fall of Augusto Pinochet in 1990 had posed with the coat of arms on the sash before Kast.

In his first address to the nation, Kast described a country riddled with organized crime and weak finances and painted his administration as an emergency government aimed at fixing those problems. 'They've handed us a country in conditions worse than we imagined,' Kast said, addressing a crowd of thousands of supporters who gathered outside La Moneda presidential palace in Santiago on Wednesday night.

'To face those emergencies, in security, health, education, employment and more, Chile needs an emergency government and that's what we'll be.' Kast also called for unity and said the government would conduct audits across the government and crack down on crime, immigration and corruption. 'We're going to restore our country, we're going to restore our streets, we're going to restore our institutions. We're going to restore hope,' Kast said. 'We build the future together.'

Before addressing the crowd, Kast signed a number of presidential decrees with several focused on improving border security in the country's northern desert region as well as a full audit of the state's finances.