On December 19, 2021, Gabriel Boric was elected as President of Chile by a 56-44 margin. Boric, a deputy from Chile, won an election over Jose Kast, someone who was charitably described as "far right" but evinced fascist tendencies. To explain the election, we have to go back a while.
In October 2019, after three decades post-dictatorship, and after slow but steady economic growth, the seemingly placid Chile burst into revolt. What started as a protest by middle school students about a fare increase on the Santiago Metro turned into a widespread social and political movement, leading to a critical reexamination of most aspects of Chilean society, from all quarters of society, as well as a constitutional convention. In the middle of all of this, Chile's normally scheduled presidential election was due to be held. Sebastian Pinera, a moderate right candidate, had won by a narrow margin in 2017, and was caught unaware by the social movement that came about during his term. Pinera, a supporter of Chile's economic order, was a target of protesters, although the anger ran much deeper than that.
During the protest movement, something else happened, Covid-19, which along with its direct effects on health, also caused problems that reverberated in the world's economy, causing harm to Chile's natural resource based economy. Apparently, crime has been increasing in Chile as well, although that is not exactly a new thing. There is often a reaction against social change. Which is why, going into the election, one of the candidates was a hard-right figure who praised the Pinochet dictatorship (for its "economic growth", of course) and who was antagonistic to Chile's feminist and gay and lesbian community. In the first round, Jose Kast got more of the vote than Gabriel Boric, the leftist, pro-reform candidate. I got nervous when I heard, that, but in the next month, Boric pulled into a better position, and on election night, he won by over ten points, and both Pinera and Kast were quick to congratulate him as the next president.
Boric faces a tough time. The glow of young and idealistic leaders often fades quickly. Chile currently has a lot of problems, many of them pandemic related, but also due to Chile's position as a middle income country that, while in the OECD, is one of the world's poorest "developed" countries. Even if Boric does everything perfectly, he will probably be blamed by many for the ongoing pains of the pandemic, as well as the disappointment of not being able to single-handedly bring Chile to a true "first world" standard of development.
But all of that is for later. The results from now speak for themselves: Chile has, as far as such elections can be described as decisive, decided on a progressive candidate, and repudiated the candidate who flirted with fascism. What this means in the future, I don't know, but for right now, it is good news.