José Antonio Kast’s victory in Chile: a return to Pinochetism or a growing Latin American trend?

President Milei with the President-elect of Chile, José Antonio Kast. Photo credit: Government of the Argentine Republic

December 14^th, 2025 - one of the year’s biggest political shakeups in Latin America. It marks the election of José Antonio Kast in Chile, a member of the far-right Republican Party. He succeeds Gabriel Boric, student movement leader and member of the strongly left leaning Approve Dignity coalition, a sign of the stark change in Chilean voters’ attitudes. 

Kast’s rise and personal history with far-right politics have troubled many due to the country’s devastating history under the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. The dictatorship was responsible for the loss of thousands of lives. Kast was born in 1966 to a Nazi Party lieutenant who had immigrated with his wife to Chile. Miguel Kast, one of his brothers, would go on to serve as an economist and Minister of Labor in the Pinochet administration. José Antonio Kast appeared in campaign ads for the “yes” vote in Chile’s 1988 plebiscite that would have extended Pinochet’s rule had it succeeded. 

He was first elected as a deputy in the 2000s with the support of a religious congregation favoring candidates that opposed same-sex marriage and emergency contraception. In line with many hard conservative stances, he vehemently denies the scientific consensus on climate change and wishes to “protect Chile’s European heritage and unity” from the left’s endorsement of indigenous activism and multiculturalism. One of his main goals is to strengthen the Carabineros, Chile’s national gendarmerie.  

Kast has proposed building miles of barriers on Chile’s northern border, going as far as to argue that a moat should be constructed. He has suggested mass deportations of irregular migrants, and desires billions of dollars in reductions of the state budget. On the international front, he has expressed admiration for Bukele’s mano dura mass incarceration system and has already been well received by Argentina’s Milei, as the blue hue of conservatism continues to wash over Latin America’s political map. He has made it clear strategies outside the law are not something to admonish - expressing support for Brazil’s Bolosanaro even after he was jailed for participation in a coup attempt, and for Trump’s recent operation in Venezuela. 

Kast’s mandate reflects Latin American voters’ broader recent fixations with the securitization of borders, crime-fighting strategies, and a hope for investment. Some have called it a democratic path back into dictatorship, as the Southern cone struggles with the impact of the Venezuelan refugee crisis, income inequality, and a staggering rise in crime. In the states just north of Chile, right wing leaders have also risen to power for similar reasons. It will be important to assess the state of democracy across the region as the desire for strongman leaders grows.