South American country of about 20m people. The capital is Santiago. Chile returned to democracy in 1990 after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Of Chile's 20m people, nearly 2m were born outside the country. Perhaps 340,000 of those migrants are undocumented; almost all arrived after 2018, many fleeing economic disaster in Venezuela. In 2024 Chile issued over 12,000 expulsion orders but managed to deport only 1,100 people—about three a day. Venezuela refuses to accept deportees from Chile.
Crime and violence is the top concern for Chileans. Kidnappings in 2024 were the highest in a decade. Between 2022 and 2023 violence related to organised crime jumped by 37%. The murder rate climbed from 4.5 per 100,000 people in 2018 to 6.7 in 2022, but has been falling since: 6.0 in 2024, on track for about 5.0 in 2025—similar to the United States. Studies show that on average those born abroad commit less crime than Chileans, though in 2022 immigrants were slightly over-represented for murders. Chile's prisons are at about 140% of capacity and its incarceration rate is the third-highest in South America.
Gabriel Boric, a young left-wing president, won office in 2021 promising radical reform after huge protests against inequality and the establishment. The economy has grown by less than 2% a year since then, and his government is unpopular. The constitution bars him from a consecutive term.
In 2019 huge street protests erupted, sparked by increased subway fares and sustained by anger over inequality. Mr Boric rode them to victory in 2021 promising to "re-found" Chile with a new constitution. A constitutional assembly produced a draft so utopian that Chileans roundly rejected it. A second attempt, led by conservatives, was rejected too. Fernando Cerimedo, an Argentine political strategist, worked on the campaign to defeat the first draft.
The November 2025 presidential election was the first since voting was made obligatory. Insecurity and immigration dominated the campaign. Jeannette Jara of the Communist Party represented the left; her platform focused on increasing lithium output and raising the minimum wage. José Antonio Kast, an ultraconservative, promised an "emergency government" centred on shutting the border and a "war against organised crime". Evelyn Matthei, a centre-right former mayor and senator, was long the front-runner but was overtaken by Mr Kast, who was seen as stronger on crime.
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