José Antonio Kast, the Trump supporter who defends Pinochet's dictatorship

Special correspondent in Santiago, ChileChile has elected José Antonio Kast (Santiago, 1966), 59, as its president for the next four years. An ultraconservative Catholic, the son of a member of the German Nazi party, he defends the 1973 coup against Salvador Allende's government, led by Augusto Pinochet, which he considers an episode in history starring "men and women who rose up to prevent the Marxist revolution in our land." The president-elect is the first in the country's democratic history to openly defend the dictatorship that lasted until 1990, leaving 40,000 victims of torture, political imprisonment, murder, and forced disappearance.

Kast is the youngest of ten children born to Michael Kast Schindele and Olga Rist Hagspiel, German immigrants who arrived in Chile during the 1950s, after World War II. A member of the Nazi party and a German soldier, José Antonio Kast's father attained the rank of lieutenant after fighting in several battles between France and Italy, eventually being captured by a U.S. unit. He managed to escape to Bavaria, his hometown, where he met his wife and from where they fled first to Argentina, and then to Chile. Olga Rist arrived later with their first two children, Michael and Barbara. The family settled in Buin, south of Santiago, and opened a sausage factory, Bavaria, which is still in operation today.

The eldest of the Kast family, Michael, was part of the Chicago Boys, the group of Chilean economists who spearheaded neoliberal economic reforms implemented in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship—privatizations, a reduction in the role of the state, and restrictions on public spending. While these reforms opened the Chilean economy to the world, they also led to increased poverty and state bailouts for banks. Michael also served as the economic officer in charge of the intelligence division, as Minister of Labor, and as president of the Central Bank during the Pinochet regime. He died of cancer in 1983 at the age of 34.

In politics since a young age

Michael Kast's political life had a significant impact on his younger brother, José Antonio, who inherited his older brother's close relationship with Jaime Guzmán, one of the most influential figures in Chilean politics in recent decades. Guzmán was the architect of the 1980 Constitution, promulgated under Pinochet's regime, and was ultimately assassinated by a leftist guerrilla group in 1991. While Kast was studying law at the Pontifical Catholic University, Guzmán encouraged him to join the Independent Democratic Union (UDI), an ultraconservative, pro-Pinochet party that is now part of the Chile Vamos political coalition. After 20 years of membership, José Antonio Kast left to forge his own political path.

In 2017, Kast ran for president for the first time, with the support of the newly formed party Unidos en la Fe (United in Faith), linked to the evangelical community, finishing fourth with 7.9% of the vote. Two years later, he founded the far-right Republican Party, with which he ran for president in 2021, losing to Gabriel Boric, the young former student leader who capitalized on the 2019 mass protest movement against the high cost of living. Four years later, on his third attempt, José Antonio Kast won the presidency of Chile, becoming the first president in the country's democratic history to openly acknowledge voting in favor of Augusto Pinochet's continued rule in the 1988 plebiscite. No He won with 55.9% of the votes and Chile entered a phase of transition towards democracy.

"Kast is not a outsider –“It’s not just that,” sociologist Rodrigo Medel told ARA, “but that it comes from the bowels of a Pinochet-era party founded during the dictatorship.” According to the analyst, this “brings him closer to the right-wing ideological voter, who is found in all social classes and who have been left without representation,” because their traditional right wing has shifted to the traditional right wing, with Sebastián Piñera (2010-2014 and 2018-2022) as the last representative of this process. Regarding insecurity and immigration, it is well known that Kast defends religious and moral values in public policy: father of nine and member of the Schönstatt Apostolic Movement—which sees Mary as a figure to draw closer to Christ—he defends the traditional family, opposes abortion under any circumstances, and is against same-sex adoption.”