Chilean voters have elected leftist former student leader Gabriel Boric as their new president. The capital Santiago erupted in celebration Sunday with an estimated hundreds of thousands of people taking to the streets following the news. Boric beat out right-wing candidate José Antonio Kast, who conceded the runoff election Sunday. At 35 years old, Boric will become Chile’s youngest president. He has vowed to fight for progressive social reforms and overhaul the neoliberal economic policies left by the U.S.-backed dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet.
President-elect Gabriel Boric: “In the coming years, the future of our country is at stake, so I guarantee that I will be a president who cares for democracy and does not risk it, listens more than what he speaks, seeks unity and attends to the needs of the people daily. I will firmly fight against the privileges of a few. And I will work every day for the quality of the Chilean family.”
Gabriel Boric will be sworn in as president in March.