Kast takes office as Chile marks its sharpest shift to the right since dictatorship

VALPARAÍSO, Chile (AP) — Far-right leader José Antonio Kast was sworn in as Chile’s president Wednesday in the Latin American nation’s most pronounced rightward shift since the return of democracy in 1990.

In a ceremony at the National Congress in the coastal city of Valparaíso that was attended by dozens of heads of state, Kast and his Cabinet took their oaths of office after a landslide victory in the December elections.

Argentina’s President Javier Milei, Panama's President José Raúl Mulino, Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa, and Spain’s King Felipe VI were among the attendees. Other guests included Nobel Peace Prize laureate María Corina Machado.

There were several high-profile absences, including Presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Nayib Bukele of El Salvador. A modest U.S. delegation was led by Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau.

In his first speech as president Wednesday night, Kast said Chile has real adversaries, including “those who have sown terror in neighborhoods.”

Kast won his landslide election victory against communist candidate Jeannette Jara with the promise of fighting crime and curbing illegal immigration, similar to the aims of his U.S. counterpart, Donald Trump.

“And those who have entered by violating our borders to commit crimes, exploit others or turn our land into a no-man’s land are also adversaries of Chile,” Kast said from the balcony at the La Moneda Palace in the capital, Santiago. He added that the government “will not negotiate” with them and that he will pursue them and bring them to justice.

Demonstrations for and against the new president unfolded outside Congress in Valparaíso and the La Moneda Palace. Kast supporters waved flags and held banners reading “Long live Chile” and “President of change.”

“Now is the time for unity. After all, a large majority of the country voted for him, and that’s why I came to support him,” Melisa Muñoz, a 38-year-old secretary, told The Associated Press.

Meanwhile, another group of protesters marched against Kast and what they called American “imperialism." Police closed several subway stations in downtown Santiago as a security measure.

“With Kast, it’s going to be like living back in the ‘80s,” Jeanete Figueroa, 52, an administrator, told AP, referring to the years Chile lived under the dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. “I lived through it in the ’80s, I went out to protest, and now it’s going to be exactly the same, I’ll go back to the streets.”

Chile is the latest Latin American country to vote out an incumbent government, with voters backing right-wing leaders from Argentina to Bolivia as Trump looks to assert U.S. dominance in the Western Hemisphere, in many cases punishing rivals and rewarding allies.

While Kast has avoided commenting on controversial issues at home and abroad, he has made overtures to the Trump administration and praised the U.S. operation that culminated in the capture of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

These signals intensified recently when Kast abruptly ended the transition process following a clash with outgoing President Gabriel Boric over a project to install a submarine cable to connect Chile and China. The project drew intense criticism from the U.S. and further deepened the diplomatic tensions between the Boric administration and Washington.

Relations between Chile and the United States have deteriorated significantly under the second Trump administration. Boric was a vocal critic of his U.S. counterpart, even characterizing the Republican’s leadership style as that of a “new emperor.”

Trump openly signaled his preference for Kast over Boric, notably inviting Kast to last weekend’s “Shield of the Americas” summit in Miami, which brought together several right-wing leaders in the region, including Bukele and Milei.

Kast narrowly lost the presidency in 2021 to Boric. At that time, his opposition to abortion and same-sex marriage — along with his praise of the legacy and figure of Pinochet — were largely rejected by Chileans.

Four years later, his hard-line stance on crime and immigration won the support of about 60% of voters in a country hit by a rise in organized crime and disappointed by the great expectations that Boric raised but left unfulfilled.

“He promised us many things, and then it was four years of disappointment,” Yamila Martinez, a 31-year-old warehouse assistant, told The Associated Press.

Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america

Chile's President Jose Antonio Kast and his wife Maria Pia Adriasola wave to supporters from the balcony of la Moneda presidential palace after his inauguration in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Cristobal Basaure)

Chile's President Jose Antonio Kast, center, and his wife Maria Pia Adriasola greet guests on his inauguration day at Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Chile's President Jose Antonio Kast and his wife Maria Pia Adriasola wave to supporters from the balcony of La Moneda presidential palace after his inauguration in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

A dog lies on the red carpet outside Congress prior to the inauguration ceremony of Chile's new President Jose Antonio Kast in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

Outgoing President Gabriel Boric greets supporters as he leaves after President Jose Antonio Kast's swearing-in ceremony in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

Anti-government protesters demonstrate on the inauguration day of Chile's incoming President Jose Antonio Kast in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Luis Hidalgo)

Chile's President Jose Antonio Kast, center, and his wife Maria Pia Adriasola greet guests on his inauguration day at Congress in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Chile's President Jose Antonio Kast waves to supporters as he leaves Congress after his swearing-in ceremony in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

Panamanian President Jose Raul Mulino arrives to Congress for the inauguration ceremony of Chile's President Jose Antonio Kast in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

Spain's King Felipe arrives to Congress for the inauguration ceremony of Chile's President Jose Antonio Kast in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado arrives to Congress to attend the inauguration ceremony of Chile's new President Jose Antonio Kast in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

United States Deputy Secretary of State Christopher Landau arrives to Congress to attend the inauguration ceremony of Chile's new President Jose Antonio Kast in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Gustavo Garello)

Senate President Paulina Nunez, left, places the presidential sash on incoming President Jose Antonio Kast during his inauguration in Valparaiso, Chile, Wednesday, March 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Chilean President-elect Jose Antonio Kast talks to the press at his office in Santiago, Chile, Tuesday, March 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Residents of Vilnius were told to take shelter and Lithuania's president and prime minister were taken to safe locations Wednesday because of an alarm over drone activity near the border with Belarus, underlining jitters on NATO's eastern fringe over incursions related to Russia's war with Ukraine.

An emergency announcement from the military told people in the Vilnius region to “immediately head to a shelter or a safe place.”

The alert, which lasted for about an hour, also led to the closure of the airspace over Vilnius Airport. President Gitanas Nauseda and Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene were taken to shelters, and there was also an evacuation order at Lithuania's parliament, the Seimas, the BNS news agency reported.

It was the first major alert that sent residents and political leaders in a European Union and NATO capital rushing to shelters since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Lithuania borders Russia-allied Belarus to the east and Russia's Kaliningrad exclave to the west. Wednesday's alert came after the military said it detected drone activity in Belarus, but no drones were sighted over Lithuania.

In recent months, Ukrainian drones aimed at Russia have crossed or come down in NATO territory on numerous occasions. Western officials have blamed what they say is likely Russian electronic jamming of the drones. Russia, meanwhile, has renewed threats that it would retaliate if Ukrainian drones are launched from Baltic countries or if those countries are complicit in their use against Russia.

On Tuesday evening, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kęstutis Budrys wrote on social media that “Russia is deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones into Baltic airspace while waging smear campaigns” against Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. “It’s a transparent act of desperation — an attempt to sow chaos and distract from a simple reality: (Ukraine) is hitting Russian military machine hard.”

Budrys' comment came hours after a NATO jet shot down a Ukrainian drone over southern Estonia. Ukraine apologized for that “unintended incident,” without specifying what had happened.

Last week, Latvia’s government collapsed following an argument over the handling of multiple incidents involving stray drones suspected to be from Ukraine. The defense minister was forced to quit after his party withdrew its support for him, and the prime minister then resigned. The governing coalition had been under strain for months over several other issues.

In a recent escalation of aerial attacks, Russia and Ukraine have sometimes fired hundreds of drones a day at each other.

Ukraine’s air force said Wednesday that it shot down 131 out of 154 drones that Russia launched overnight. The ones that got past air defenses killed three civilians and wounded 18 others, including two children, officials said.

Ukraine, meanwhile, continued its aerial campaign against Russia’s vital oil industry, with the General Staff reporting its drones struck a major Russian oil refinery and a pipeline pumping station overnight.

Russian media reports also indicated that a chemical plant in the southern Stavropol region was hit and caught fire, although local officials didn’t confirm any direct hit.

The U.K. government, a strong supporter of Ukraine's war effort, has loosened strict sanctions on Russian oil refined into diesel and jet fuel in third countries as prices rise due to the Iran war.

The waiver begins Wednesday and reflects growing supply concerns over certain fuels due to the effective blockade of the key Strait of Hormuz waterway.

That step comes two days after U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced that Washington was granting a 30-day extension for countries to import Russian oil that is already in tankers at sea, a move that is meant to reduce the oil supply shortages.

The announcement marked a continued policy reversal by the Trump administration, which had previously said the sanctions on Russian oil would resume. Originally announced in early March, the temporary waiver on the sanctions was first renewed in April.

Geir Moulson in Berlin, Hanna Arhirova in Kyiv, Ukraine and Barry Hatton in Lisbon, Portugal contributed to this report.

Follow the AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine

In this photo provided by the Ukrainian Emergency Services on Wednesday, May 20, 2026, rescue workers put out a fire of a residential building damaged after a Russian strike on Konotop, Ukraine. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AP)

The phone shows the received message "The Lithuanian military reports: "AIR DANGER. Hurry to cover or a safe place without delay, take care of your loved ones, wait for further recommendations. We will inform you about the end of the danger in a separate message", in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)

The phone shows the received message "The Lithuanian military reports: "AIR DANGER. Hurry to cover or a safe place without delay, take care of your loved ones, wait for further recommendations. We will inform you about the end of the danger in a separate message", in Vilnius, Lithuania, Wednesday, May 20, 2026. (AP Photo/Mindaugas Kulbis)