AYESHA RASCOE, HOST:
Two issues top voters' minds as Chileans go to the polls today to elect a new president - crime and illegal immigration. And in this runoff, voters face two starkly different choices - a lifelong communist or the far-right son of a former Nazi. NPR's Carrie Kahn reports that polls suggest the country may be poised for a sharp shift to the right.
CARRIE KAHN, BYLINE: A big crowd has turned out to hear presidential candidate Jose Antonio Kast in this conservative stronghold of Temuco in Southern Chile. Forty-year-old teacher Leslie Yout says her city isn't the same as it used to be just a few years ago.
LESLIE YOUT: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "We can't go downtown safely at night anymore, and the children don't play in the street like they used to," she says.
She likes Kast's ideas on illegal immigration and crime, two issues Kast deftly conflates in his stump speeches.
(CHEERING)
KAHN: He's campaigning on an iron-fist approach to crime, a message that's resonating in many Latin-American countries. He's also vowed to deport the estimated 300,000 undocumented migrants in Chile, most from Venezuela.
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JOSE ANTONIO KAST: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "There are people in my country that can't sleep at night and wear bulletproof vests to bed," he says.
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KAST: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "This has to stop. And it's not revenge," he says, "it's justice."
He vows to increase police forces and build maximum security prisons. There's actually been a recent drop in homicides, say Claudia Heiss Bendersky, a political scientist at the University of Chile. Despite that, though, she says Chileans feel vulnerable.
CLAUDIA HEISS BENDERSKY: While we still have very low rates of homicide, we do have new kinds of crimes that we didn't have before, and I think that's had a lot of impact in public opinion.
KAHN: Organized crime gangs have moved into Chile, trafficking everything from drugs to illegal wood, she says. And they hire assassins who use heavy weaponry to commit headline-grabbing graphic crimes. But today's vote is not solely ideological, she says.
HEISS BENDERSKY: We have an electorate that wants to punish elites and that wants to punish presidents in power. So it's a very strong anti-incumbent vote.
KAHN: Chileans have opted for change at the top in nearly every election of the past two decades. That's a big hurdle for 51-year-old Jeannette Jara to overcome. She's a former minister in the outgoing leftist government and a lifelong member of Chile's Communist Party.
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UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting in non-English language).
KAHN: At her closing rally this week in the capital Santiago, she tried to focus more on policies that she says will work to help all Chileans, like a higher minimum wage, better pensions and social programs to combat crime.
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JEANNETTE JARA: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "I have conviction and the ability to take a firm hand when needed," she says.
But while Jara came in first in a crowded field of candidates in the primary, she's now polling far behind Kast. This time around, he's avoided discussing his conservative stance on social issues. He favors a total ban on abortion, rejects same-sex marriage and has spoken fondly about Augusto Pinochet's dictatorship, positions that tanked his previous two presidential bids.
Roxana Munoz (ph), a 58-year-old cashier, rejects Kast.
ROXANA MUNOZ: (Non-English language spoken).
KAHN: "I would never vote for a man who speaks so badly about women. He thinks we're just here to procreate," she says.
With John Bartlett in Chile, I'm Carrie Kahn, NPR News.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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