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Kast: A Pivot to the Far Right
In December 2025, right-wing candidate Jose Antonio Kast emerged victorious in Chile’s presidential election. Mr. Kast became a force within Chilean politics after abandoning the center-right Independent Democratic Union in favour of the further right Republican Party. President-elect Kast promotes right-wing, anti-LGBTQ, and anti-abortion policies, placing him in line with right-wing populist leaders like Argentine President Javier Milei and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
In addition to his right-wing political positions, Mr. Kast has expressed support for Chile’s former right-wing military dictator Augusto Pinochet, who ruled the country from 1973 to 1990. Pinochet’s regime engaged in significant violence against Chilean civilians, torturing an estimated 40,000 people. Dictatorial rule in Chile ended following a 1988 referendum where a majority of Chileans voted against the continuation of the Pinochet regime. Mr. Kast voted to continue Pinochet’s autocratic rule – the only post-Pinochet president of Chile to support the autocrat.
The rise to prominence of Mr. Kast, an elected president supportive of a dictatorship, has troubling implications for the future of democracy in Chile. The pro-dictatorship vision Mr. Kast espouses for the country have materialized not just in political rhetoric, but also in policies which steer Chile in a dictatorial direction.
Historical Context: Pinochet’s Dictatorship and the Role of the Kast Family
Augusto Pinochet’s rule over Chile began in 1973 when the military overthrew Salvador Allende, Chile’s elected left-wing president. Despite being arrested in the UK in 1998, Pinochet was never convicted for his instrumental role in the torture of thousands of Chilean civilians.
President-elect Kast has significant family connections to the Pinochet regime. His older brother, Miguel Kast, was Pinochet’s Minister of Labour and member of the “Chicago Boys”; a group of economists who implemented neoliberal policies including weakening the power of labour unions and privatizing universities. Additionally, judicial records show that Mr. Kast’s family was involved with Pinochet’s secret police force, the Central Nacional de Informaciones (CNI), responsible for state-sactioned extrajudicial killings.
Kast’s Policies and the Spectre of the Dictatorship
President-elect Kast has framed Pinochet’s dictatorship positively, unlike prior conservative presidents in Chile post-Pinochet. Mr. Kast announced in 2017 that he would “proudly defend the military government” and that he would exonerate those who were convicted of crimes in connection with the dictatorship. Additionally, Mr. Kast has proudly asserted his belief that Mr. Pinochet would have supported his campaign, directly connecting his political aims with the ideology of the former dictator.
Mr. Kast’s cabinet selection further speaks to his relation to the past dictatorship. Mr. Kast appointed one of Pinochet’s former lawyers as his Minister of Justice and Human Rights – despite the mass human rights violations of Pinochet’s regime. With this role, Pinochet’s former lawyer will have significant influence over the possibility of pardoning criminals convicted of human rights violations in service of Pinochet’s regime.
In 2020, Mr. Kast along with several other right-wing leaders signed the Madrid Charter, dedicated to defending Latin America from communism. The Madrid Forum, founder of the Madrid Charter, claims to defend “freedom, democracy and the rule of law”, inconsistent with Mr. Kast’s celebration of Chile’s former dictatorship which tortured tens of thousands of its own citizens and ruled autocratically for close to two decades.
Continuing the connections to the Pinochet era, Mr. Kast’s policy agenda is set to include further economic deregulation, consistent with the neoliberal policies of Pinochet’s Chicago Boys. Additionally, Mr. Kast has platformed toughness against crime as a key policy, as fear from rising crime in Chile creates a desire to return to a political system where order is enforced, and Mr. Kast is seen as being able to restore that order.
Kast’s Place in the Populism/Dictatorship/Fascism Pipeline
Chile’s role in protecting proponents of right-wing authoritarianism extends beyond Mr. Kast’s celebration of the Pinochet era. At the end of the Second World War, Chile participated in the “Ratlines,” a network used to smuggle Nazi members from Europe to South America. While members of the Nazi Party primarily sought refuge in Argentina, with around 5,000 members relocating there post-World War II, Chile, Brazil, and other South American nations accepted a substantial number, with the continent receiving an estimated 9,000 escapees in total.
Mr. Kast’s father, Michael Kast, was a member of the Nazi Party and served in the German military in World War II. The elder Kast escaped capture and fled to Chile in 1950. While President-elect Kast claimed that his father was forced to join the party, historians assert that Nazi Party membership “was always a choice” and thus voluntary.
The Kast family “strongly supported” the Pinochet government during its reign from 1973 to 1990, but he is not the only former Nazi party member who was strongly tied to the regime. Walther Rauff, a prominent Nazi commander, was heavily rumoured to be involved with Pinochet. Additionally, Pinochet refused to extradite the former Nazi Rauff to West Germany during the 1980s, further evidence of the Pinochet regime’s connection and attachment to fascism.
Kast’s Ideological Standing: On the Threshold of Fascism
With Mr. Kast’s support of the violent Pinochet regime which had fascist tendencies and connections to former Nazis, Mr. Kast’s authoritarian leanings are evident. This presents a challenge for Chilean democracy unseen since the transition to democracy in 1990.
Cases of far-right leaders similar to Mr. Kast in Chile have influenced Latin American politics in recent years, but Chile’s predicament appears uniquely dire. While former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro was known for support of Brazil’s former military dictatorship, his political career was curbed following his 2022 election loss – followed by arrest and imprisonment for attempting to overturn the result. Javier Milei, Argentina’s current far-right President, has released files related to his country’s role in sheltering Nazis, showing effort to publicly reckon with Argentina’s role in the ratlines. In Chile, however, the legacy of the ratlines unaddressed as its main nationalist figure freely promotes authoritarianism. Comparing Chile to Brazil and Argentina leaves Mr. Kast’s regime isolated in terms of its support for authoritarianism and complicity with fascism.
Mr. Kast’s outspoken high regard for the Pinochet regime showcases his authoritarian leanings – and has explanatory power – for his policies seeking to imitate the former dictatorship. Mr. Kast’s anti-communist fearmongering mirrors the Pinochet regime’s origins as an anti-communist buffer. Mr. Kast’s willingness to appoint those who defended human rights violators to positions of power show his disregard for democratic values. His policies, namely his neoliberal economics and crackdown on crime, evoke strong resemblance to the Pinochet era. Combining this with his admiration for an autocratic regime that supported former Nazis, it is clear that Mr. Kast’s presidency comes with the possibility of Chile returning to dictatorial rule after 35 years of democracy.
Thus, Mr. Kast’s family connections serve as a metaphor to how close Chile is to open fascism: one generation.
Edited by Laila Graham
The argument defended in this article is solely that of the author and does not reflect the position of the McGill Journal of Political Science, the Political Science Students’ Association, or the Political Science Department.
Featured image by Wikimedia Commons
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