Chile’s hard-right president-elect Jose Antonio Kast said Tuesday that he would back efforts to end Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro’s “dictatorship,” giving Washington yet another regional ally in its showdown with Caracas.
Kast said he supported “any situation” to do away with Maduro’s government as he visited Argentina — his first foreign trip since he easily defeated a leftist candidate in Sunday’s election run-off.
Kast had campaigned on promises to deport more than 300,000 mostly Venezuelan irregular migrants, tackle crime and secure the northern border.
His win confirms a right-wing lurch in Latin America, following victories for the right in Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador.
It also expands President Donald Trump’s support base in the region at a time when he is considering strikes on Venezuelan territory.
On a visit to Buenos Aires on Tuesday, Kast said that while Chile itself would “not intervene” in Venezuela, “if someone is going to do it, let’s be clear that it solves a gigantic problem for us and all of Latin America, all of South America, and even for countries in Europe.”
Kast blamed Venezuela’s economic meltdown and migrant outflow on the leftist Maduro, whom he called “a narco-dictator.”
Around seven million Venezuelans have emigrated since 2014, fleeing a severe economic and political crisis under an increasingly authoritarian Maduro.
“It is not our responsibility to solve it (the Venezuelan crisis), but whoever does will have our support,” Kast said.
Before the election, Kast had called on undocumented Venezuelans in Chile to self-deport or be thrown out when he takes office in March.
But hundreds of migrants who tried to travel home last month found themselves blocked at the border with Peru, which is refusing them entry.
Kast has proposed the creation of a “humanitarian corridor” through South America to allow Venezuelans and other migrants to return home.
Maduro has reacted angrily to Kast’s broadsides against Venezuela.
On Monday, he likened Kast to Hitler and warned him to “watch out if you so much as touch a single hair on a Venezuelan’s head.”
His remark about Adolf Hitler was seen as a swipe at Kast’s German-born father, who was a member of the Nazi party and a soldier during World War II.
Kast insists his father was a forced conscript and did not support the Nazis.
He chose Chile’s neighbor and sometimes economic rival, Argentina, for his first visit abroad.
Libertarian leader Javier Milei gave a warm welcome to the Chilean, whom he sees as an ideological ally.
On Sunday, he hailed Kast’s victory over the candidate of the outgoing leftist government as “another step forward in our region in defense of life, liberty, and private property.”
