The Latin American Report # 673: José Antonio Kast, new President-elect of Chile

BREAKING 👇

The vote-counting process performed impeccably again in Chile for the runoff, so much so that at this hour, the preliminary data dissemination system shows 99.56% of polling stations already scrutinized. José Antonio Kast, who will be the first ultra-conservative, Pinochet-like since the return of democracy, won with 58% of the valid votes, in a count that excludes null or blank ballots, which total about 947,000, i.e., around 7% of the overall total. Tomorrow, I will expand on what this result suggests for the immediate and near future of Chile.

Honduras

But fourteen days after the general elections were held in Honduras, the citizens there do not know who will be their president for the upcoming term. We have spoken extensively about the irregularities in the vote count there, propelled by disastrous management on the part of the electoral authority, which should have ensured the operability of the system for recording, transmitting, and disseminating electoral results, contracted to a Colombian company. Unlike what constitutes an orderly and transparent vote-counting process by the end of the first quarter of the 21st century, like the one in Chile, the official website intended for the so-called TREP system is still down for the public, while it is enabled only for political parties and the media.

For this Sunday, and initially for yesterday, Saturday, was scheduled the start of the special scrutiny process that will define the winner of the elections at the presidential level—and also in some congressional and local disputes—, after reviewing hundreds of voting records that presented inconsistencies during their digital processing. However, around 2 pm Honduras time, it still had not begun, with the National Electoral Council, dominated by the opposition, citing certain administrative obstacles—particularly from councilor Marlon Ochoa, representing the ruling party—, the lack of accreditation for members of the special scrutiny boards—this very related to the Liberal Party, apparently due to certain unmet demands from its presidential candidate Salvador Nasralla—, and even, once again, the lack of finalization of technological procedures.

Thus, the institutional dysfunction is very serious, starting with the institutional design itself, which conceives that the political affiliation of the members of the electoral authority, for example, can interfere with the normal development of the process. The special scrutiny process is key because there are over 500,000 votes at stake, which can either cement the very short margin of 42,407 votes in favor of candidate Nasry Asfura, explicitly backed by Donald Trump himself, or configure a comeback for Nasralla. The position being adopted by the ruling party is very concerning, pointing to a probable institutional crisis at the moment of a potential presidential transition. I believe that despite all the entangled and murky nature of the electoral process, LIBRE lost these elections overwhelmingly.

Colombia

President Gustavo Petro has called on the Colombian population to disregard the "armed strike" declaration by the National Liberation Army (ELN in Spanish), which presents it as a show of rejection to the U.S. military deployment in the Caribbean Sea and the Eastern Pacific. An "armed strike," in guerrilla jargon, implies restricting the movement of people—primarily in areas where the ELN is strong or fiercely disputed—, restricting vehicle circulation on critical roads, or imposing the closure of businesses. Instead, Petro calls on Colombians to enjoy the holidays, declaring that the country "will not be threatened by foreign powers nor by [drug traffickers] dressed as revolutionaries."

This Sunday, the Army neutralized two explosive devices in the turbulent departments of Norte de Santander and Cauca, both related to the ELN and its call for the so-called armed strike. The ELN was born and still presents itself as a left-wing organization. The disconnect with Petro, the most left-leaning president in Colombian democracy, is symptomatic of the political landscape there. Colombian authorities also reported this Sunday the seizure of about 3 tons of cocaine and marijuana in recent hours.

Guatemala

Guatemalan President Bernardo Arévalo has declared a "state of prevention" in the municipalities of Nahualá and Santa Catarina Ixtahuacán, in the western department of Sololá, following a succession of violent events, attributed to illegal armed or paramilitary groups, which yesterday resulted in at least five people dead. At the root of the problem is a historic territorial dispute between both localities, although the Arévalo administration presents the latest events as part of a deliberate attack against the Guatemalan Army, with promoters taking advantage of that confrontation.

This is all for today’s report.