24.12.2025, Santiago.
The victory of ultraconservative José Antonio Kast in Chile’s presidential election signifies a new return to power of the Pinochet-era elite and expands opportunities for restoring US influence in the region, Rossa Primavera News Agency‘s Latin American Desk wrote.
In the second round of Chile’s presidential election held on December 14, the ultraconservative leader of the opposition Republican Party and an ardent admirer of General Augusto Pinochet, José Antonio Kast, has been elected as Chile’s next president. His rise to power indicates the country’s most radical shift to the right since the fall of the military dictatorship in 1990. Thus, Chile became the third Latin American country after Ecuador and Bolivia where right-wing forces came to power in 2025.
Kast received more than 58% of the vote. His opponent, Communist Party candidate and representative of the ruling coalition Jeannette Jara, won the support of 41.8% of voters. Voter turnout exceeded 85%, significantly higher than in the previous elections. Kast’s victory became possible because the government of Gabriel Boric — a pseudoleftist president — failed to meet the expectations of voters who supported him in 2021 in hopes of deep structural changes. In essence, his rule paved the way for a new seizure of power by the right.
Now nine countries in the region are governed by center-right or conservative presidents. Argentine leader Javier Milei called Kast’s victory proof that Latin America is casting off the “oppressive shackles of 21st-century socialism.”
The rapprochement between these countries creates a foundation for a political alliance oriented toward cooperation with the United States. With Kast’s election, Washington’s influence in the region has significantly increased, as the US has in recent years sought to restore control over Latin America.
Kast does not hide his admiration for US President Donald Trump, which is clearly reflected in his political rhetoric. In addition to directly borrowing Trump’s slogan “Make Chile Great Again” [a reference to “Make America Great Again” — Rossa Primavera News Agency], during his election campaign he, like Trump, promised to build 5-meter-high walls with electric fences and moats on the borders with Bolivia and Peru to control migration, to deport about 330,000 illegal migrants — mainly Venezuelans — and voiced harsh criticism of left-wing governments. Such rhetoric stands in stark contrast to the approach of Chile’s previous government.
Kast also supported a US military operation against Venezuela. Just one day after his electoral victory, while in Argentina, he publicly stated that he would support a potential US intervention to overthrow the “Maduro regime,” calling it a solution to a “giant problem” for the entire region. The Trump administration, in turn, also demonstrated its sympathy by congratulating Kast on his victory.
Kast is the son of Michael Kast, a member of the Nazi party, who served as an officer in the Wehrmacht during World War II. Kast’s family was well integrated into Chile’s Pinochet-era elite. The brother of Chile’s elected president, Miguel Kast, was one of the “Chicago Boys,” that is, part of the group of Chilean economists who worked during Augusto Pinochet’s military regime to build a “free market economy” in the country. Under Pinochet, Miguel Kast served as head of the Central Bank and as minister of labor. Notably, the brother of Chilean President Sebastián Piñera (2018–2022), José Piñera, was also a “Chicago Boy.” Under Pinochet, he was minister of labor and social security and the author of the notorious pension reform under which pension contributions were managed by private funds.
Referring to the years of Pinochet’s dictatorship, José Antonio Kast has emphasized that it was a “good government” that ensured “peace and order,” while at times acknowledging that human rights violations did occur under the regime. During his political career, Kast uttered the phrase, “If he were alive, he would vote for me.”
Kast’s victory points to a crisis of trust in pseudo-leftist liberal-globalist forces in Latin America and turns Chile into an instrument for advancing US interests in the region.
Source: Rossa Primavera News Agency
