Fuel Crisis and Protests Leave Chile’s President Kast at 24% Approval

SANTIAGO — Chile’s President José Antonio Kast is facing the deepest crisis of his young presidency, with his approval rating down to 24% as fuel prices, highway blockades and street protests pile pressure on his government eight months into his presidency.

Thousands of demonstrators marched through Santiago on Friday evening, chanting and waving flags as heavily armed police blocked streets and fired water cannons to disperse them. The protests capped a week in which the country’s powerful truckers’ unions blockaded two major highways, forcing the government into a climbdown on fuel prices on Friday.

A presidency under pressure

Kast won the presidency in December 2025, steering clear of his hardline positions on social issues and campaigning instead on illegal immigration and public security, NPR reported. But less than a year on, he has floundered on the agenda that carried him to office, and the rising cost of living has hit his government hard.

Polling puts his approval at just 24%, a stark fall for a leader who arrived in office promising order and discipline. The discontent reaches well beyond the fuel pumps: protesters are also angry about proposed cuts to education, culture, science and a host of social programmes in the government’s budget, which is working its way through Congress. The same cost-of-living squeeze is visible elsewhere in the Americas, and wholesale inflation in the United States has also climbed, with producer prices up 6.5% on the year.

How fuel prices ignited the protests

The roots of the crisis go back to July, when Kast’s government chose not to apply an anti-inflation tool available to the Chilean state to ease the rise in fuel prices brought about by the U.S.-Israeli war with Iran. Prices shot up overnight, and motorists joined long queues at petrol stations to fill their tanks before the rise took effect.

The pressure has only grown since. Industry groups say the average price of diesel has risen 74% since March, the BBC reported, and this week Chile’s truckers’ unions — led by Fuerza del Norte, which represents about 80% of the country’s lorry drivers, alongside the No+TAG civic protest movement — blockaded two major highways to demand relief.

Talks between the government and protest leaders failed to reach a deal on Tuesday, and Economy Minister Daniel Mas warned the roads would eventually have to be reopened. On Friday, the government backed down, sending a bill to Congress that would reverse the planned fuel price rises. It is expected to be approved this month, but public anger over the cost of living continues to grow.

Oil prices have climbed through the autumn as attacks in the Gulf disrupted supply, adding to the squeeze on households and hauliers alike.

Sentence cuts deepen the anger

Much of the recent anger stems from a revelation last month that Kast’s government had signed decrees cutting the sentences of 56 prisoners whose crimes range from the rape of children to dictatorship-era human rights violations. Kast has since admitted the move was an “error”, but he has stood by the undersecretary who signed the decrees.

At Friday’s march, 30-year-old architect Simón Echavarría described the financial pressure facing ordinary Chileans. “Our salaries are maybe 20% of a European income, but with a similar cost of living – it’s terrible,” he said.

“We want to protest against the measures that have set us back on environmental issues, on human rights, even reducing the sentences of pedophiles – they are implementing things that nobody asked for,” Echavarría added.

Patricia Pereira, a 30-year-old veterinarian at the march, said she was worried about cuts to science funding, but that her discontent ran deeper. “Here in Chile, it was a hard-won victory for children to have free education, achieved through protests, and now even that’s also being called into question,” she said.

A wider pattern across the Americas

Chile is not alone. Politicians across the Americas who have aligned themselves closely with President Donald Trump are facing similar challenges as fuel prices and the cost of everyday goods fuel public discontent. In Argentina, far-right libertarian Javier Milei faces re-election in less than a year, with 60% of the country disapproving of his leadership amid spiralling inflation. In Peru, President Keiko Fujimori faces growing discontent, with 53% disapproving of her government, according to a recent Ipsos poll.

For Kast, the test is whether Friday’s climbdown calms the streets or only buys time. Protests are likely to grow in Santiago if the government fails to address the rising cost of living — and so far, the president has shown little sign of doing so. His budget proposal, with its cuts to education, culture, science and social programmes, is still moving through Congress.