Why does the right-wing win elections in La Araucanía?

Abstract

In the past five decades, La Araucanía has entrenched itself as a stronghold of the right in Chile. Against a backdrop of sociopolitical crisis, escalating violence, and presidential elections, this article draws on contributions from protection motivation theory to delve into the right-aligned electoral behavior of the population. Following 39 semi-structured interviews with the mesocracy of Temuco, it was concluded that participants sought to alleviate personal fears by choosing candidates who acknowledged a security issue in the region and maintained a consistent discourse in non- election periods. Unlike the right, recognized as the sole condemner of “terrorism,” left- wing parties are attributed responsibility for the increase in violence due to their ambiguity in condemning those invoking the Mapuche cause.