SANTIAGO, Nov 13, 2025 (BSS/AFP) - Chilean ultra-right presidential candidate Johannes Kaiser ended his campaign Wednesday with rock-suffused promises to be tough on crime coupled with Javier-Milei-style cuts to the state.

The 49-year-old, who made his name with YouTube tirades about immigration before entering politics, is polling in third place ahead of Sunday's presidential election.

But polls show the brash MP creeping up on the frontrunners: Jeannette Jara, a communist running on behalf of a broad left-wing coalition, and far-right rival Jose Antonio Kast.

Addressing thousands of supporters in a Santiago park after an AC/DC tribute band warmed up the crowd, Kaiser repeated his threat to expel migrants with criminal records to El Salvador's notorious CECOT prison.

The grandson of a German democratic socialist who fled Hitler's Germany in the 1930s also vowed to pardon police officers convicted of human rights abuses

"We won't tolerate the persecution of those who serve the law," he said, laying out his law-and-order agenda.

Kaiser has outflanked Kast on the right with proposals to bring back the death penalty, close Chile's border with Bolivia, a crossing point for migrants, and calls to fight crime with more "plomo" (bullets).

Kaiser also supports pardons for convicted members of former dictator Augusto Pinochet's regime.

His tough talking has been welcomed by many Chileans living in fear of the foreign organized crime gangs who have spread their tentacles to the tranquil South American country over the past decade.

While Chile remains one of Latin America's safest countries, the gangs have imported brutal tactics, including kidnapping and torture, which have sown terror.

Teresita Andrea Gonzalez, a 27-year-old social worker, who attended Wednesday's rally wrapped in the national flag, praised Kaiser for "wanting to defend Chile from narcos who don't let us sleep easy and from foreigners who come to cause harm."

Lukas Von Meyenn, a quiet-spoken 19-year-old student, said he was attracted by Kaiser's family values, including his opposition to abortion.

Access to abortion is heavily restricted in Chile but a bill before parliament would make it available up to 14 weeks of pregnancy.

On the economic front, Kaiser has taken a leaf out of Argentine Milei's book by vowing to slash what he calls a bloated state.

"We will have to fire people," he said, referring to civil servants, while assuring his program would create "enough economic growth for them to find work."