Michael Shifter, senior fellow and former president of the Inter-American Dialogue: “Not surprisingly, on Sunday Chileans overwhelmingly rejected the current administration and the candidate who represented continuity, Jeannette Jara, a longtime member of the Communist Party. This was a change election and a strong rebuke not only to the Boric government, but also the country’s traditional political forces of the center left and center right. José Antonio Kast of the Republican Party took advantage of the country’s widespread discontent and sour mood. Kast shrewdly tapped into many Chileans’ concerns about what they perceive to be a dramatic increase in violent crime, connected to a surge of immigrants—chiefly Venezuelans—in recent years. His repeated vows to adopt and implement hardline security and anti-migrant measures (such as mass detentions and deportations) broadly resonated with the Chilean electorate and reflect the country’s shift to the right. Kast’s promises to roll back government regulations and significantly reduce public spending to spury…”