Kast closes his campaign focused on insecurity and Jara calls not to vote null and void

The presidential campaign in Chile officially concluded this Thursday with two massive events outside Santiago for the candidates who will compete in the elections on Sunday, December 14: José Antonio Kast, the standard bearer of the right; and Jeannette Jara, the representative of the left.

Kast chose to close his campaign, focused on security, economy and immigration control, in Temuco, in the Araucanía Region, where he launched his third presidential candidacy last September. This region is part of the Southern Macrozone, where a conflict has been waged over Mapuche lands since 1997, which has become more complex in recent years. It is an area greatly affected by rural violence, where the Republican’s strong-arm speech to combat “terrorism” and “recover the territory” has had a deep impact, becoming one of its strongholds. The standard-bearer of the right, leader of the far-right Republicans party, obtained his best percentage in La Araucanía in the first round, with 32.57%, compared to 19.60% in Jara.

Kast arrived accompanied by his wife, Pía Adriasola, who has acquired a greater role in the second round. He began his speech by thanking God, “who has taken care of us, guided us and accompanied us,” and to the outgoing parliamentarians elected last November. “The vast majority of people want peace and that is what we are going to bring: peace in Araucanía, with all those who want to collaborate; and jail for terrorists and the violent, because the first thing we want to do is enforce the law,” he noted. “We put our heart in La Araucanía, because it had been an area hit by fear, by terror, and we wanted to reflect that.” In addition, Kast brought his iron team on stage, which has been part of the political project “that is about to win” on Sunday and thanked the support he has received from the right-wing parties and the Yellows and Democrats, which define themselves as centrist.

The Republican, in a speech confident of victory, reiterated his threat to immigrants in an irregular situation that they have 90 days left to leave the country and to fugitives from justice. “Every peso we spend looking for them, they will pay in jail,” he said. He also launched his darts again against the Government of Gabriel Boric, which according to him generated “chaos, disorder and security” and that, if they win, they will operate in reverse. And when he thanked the police, he said that, unlike candidate Jara, they applaud the Carabineros. The hundreds of adherents who gathered shouted “no communism, no communism.” Kast added “without communism in La Moneda, but with communists in the country, behaving well.”

Kast had already held a campaign close on Saturday in Concepción, in south-central Chile, where he gave his speech again behind armored glass. In Tuesday’s debate, the final face-to-face between the two candidates, Jara took the opportunity to accuse him of living in a “glass box,” in reference to the protection measure he has used at some of his rallies. Kast responded: “I suddenly have to use glass because there are people in other countries who have murdered presidential candidates. What happens if something happens to me? Then you’re going to say, actually I was right. They killed someone in Ecuador, in Colombia, there have been attacks against others. Is that what you’re looking for?” The Republican later explained that he has been attacked several times during his three presidential campaigns.

Although a final closing in Santiago was considered, the idea was discarded in recent days and its strategy was prioritized in this second round, where it has been strongly deployed in different corners of the country. In the first round he did culminate the campaign in the capital, taking a mass bath at the Movistar Arena stadium, with some 14,000 attendees, where he delivered the message that “the third time is the charm”, alluding to his third attempt to reach La Moneda and that, according to polls, it is very likely that he will succeed.

Jara: “There is a lot at stake”

Jara said goodbye to his campaign in the Coquimbo region, about 460 kilometers north of Santiago, one of his electoral strongholds. Smiling and dressed in a sky blue suit, the left-wing candidate took the stage around 9:00 p.m. to give a speech in which she highlighted her achievements as former Minister of Labor in the Boric Government, such as the pension reform and the reduction of the working day; asked to defend social rights; promised a “firm and determined hand” to combat crime, drug trafficking and corruption; and spoke about the inequalities in the country. “Some want us to believe that Chile is a country where resources are not enough and I want to tell them that Chile is a country that generates many fruits and my interest is that all Chilean families have a little piece of that fruit. It is something of justice, it is something basic in a society,” he said.

In his campaign closing ceremony, he winked at the proposals of former candidate Franco Parisi, who came in third place with 19% of the votes in the first round, such as eliminating the value-added tax on medicines. But he also emphasized his own proposals and called to vote with “joy, hope and conscience.”

Without mentioning it directly, Jara criticized the plans of Kast, whom he called “the other candidate” on one occasion. “The sentences will be served by all criminals, whether they are 30 years old or 60 years old, that is how justice has to operate,” he said, alluding to the possibility of a pardon for those convicted of human rights violations during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).

Jara, supported by nine parties, has been fighting to capture the voters of the political center, the undecided and those disenchanted with the traditional parties, since the first round, when the left obtained the worst result since 1990: 26.8%. Meanwhile, Kast, who obtained 23.95% of the votes, went with her to the runoff, and obtained the automatic support of the moderate right groups, which had supported Evelyn Matthei (12%), and the ultra Johannes Kaiser, of the Libertarian Party (13.94%).

In particular, the hope of the left-wing candidate is to seduce the voters of the populist Parisi, who called for leaving the ballot blank. “To those who are thinking of voting null, blank, talk to them, there is a lot at stake. We have to move forward and not go backwards,” concluded Jara.