Santiago, Chile – Sitting on a bench in the centre of the capital Santiago, Fernando Carrasco peers over his shoulder as a man with a large duffel bag takes a seat nearby.
The 62-year-old grandfather clutches his cellphone tightly. He lowers his voice.
“These days you can’t wander the streets after nine at night in the [urban] core,” he says. “It’s dangerous everywhere. On the bus. On the subway. It didn’t used to be like that.”
Carrasco, who works overnight shifts stocking shelves at a local supermarket, is voicing a fear that has become a central issue in Chile’s presidential elections this year: the spectre of violent crime.
On Sunday, Chilean voters head to the polls to choose between two candidates: far-right lawmaker Jose Antonio Kast and Jeannette Jara, a former labour minister and Communist candidate leading the centre-left coalition.
Their race, however, has hinged in large part on a deteriorating sense of public safety.
Crime has topped polls about voter concerns in the lead-up to the election, and in recent years, Chile has charted high — if not first — in world rankings about countries most preoccupied with violence.
The research firm Ipsos found that, as of last year, the proportion of Chileans afraid of crime remained double the global average, at a rate of 63 percent.
“Chile is one of the most fearful countries in the world,” said Daniel Johnson, the executive director of Fundacion Paz Ciudadana, an organisation that monitors the issue.
Political observers note that the trend bodes well for Kast, whose platform boasts hardline proposals to “combat organised crime, restore order and give Chileans their right to live without fear”.