Kast’s Search for a Security Breakthrough in Chile
A failed security reform and increasing concerns about crime are weighing on the president’s approval ratings amid growing U.S. pressure.
SANTIAGO—To win last year’s election, President José Antonio Kast campaigned on addressing Chile’s rising concerns over organized crime and public security. In his inauguration speech in March, Kast criticized his predecessor Gabriel Boric bluntly: “They’ve handed us a country in worse shape than we could have imagined. A country with weakened public finances. A country where organized crime and drug trafficking have gained ground. A country where families feel abandoned by the state.” Kast set out to address that sense of abandonment with a new security plan and...
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