On inauguration day, Chile’s new president inherits a Chinese cable scandal and US threats

The Chilean capital Santiago awoke on Wednesday to a mixture of celebration and tension.Jose Antonio Kast was elected in November with just over 58 per cent of the vote, defeating the Chilean Communist Party.During the campaign, he adopted a strategy clearly modelled on US President Donald Trump’s playbook, promising to build a wall along the border with Bolivia to stem irregular migration and to tackle the surge in crime he sought to blame on Venezuelan refugees the country had taken in.08:25How Maduro’s abduction is set to change Latin AmericaHow Maduro’s abduction is set to change Latin AmericaYet despite his ambitions to lead a Latin American alliance of governments aligned with the United States, the president-elect now finds himself entangled in a scandal that has paralysed the country for weeks and fractured the transition preparations.Trouble began when local media revealed that, just weeks before the end of his term, the administration of the left-wing president Gabriel Boric had quietly greenlit a fibre-optic cable initiative managed by China Mobile International connecting the country to Hong Kong.