by CAROLE CONCHA BELL
Chile’s new far-right president seeks to recycle the military regime’s political project, risking hard earned advances in human, Indigenous, and environmental rights.
On December 14, Chile elected far-right politician José Antonio Kast as president with 58 percent of the vote, defeating Communist candidate Jeannette Jara, who won 42 percent. The outcome marks a sharp political rupture with the center-left government of outgoing President Gabriel Boric and represents the Chilean left’s worst electoral defeat since the country’s return to democracy in 1990.
Kast’s victory was welcomed by U.S. President Donald Trump and Argentine President Javier Milei, underscoring his alignment with a growing international far-right bloc. Within Chile, however, human rights, Indigenous, and environmental organizations have expressed deep concern about a wide variety of his campaign proposals and his repeated defense of Augusto Pinochet’s bloody military dictatorship. Kast’s family history has also drawn scrutiny: his father was a former registered Nazi Party member who was accused of involvement in human rights abuses during the dictatorship.
The election was driven in large part by public anxiety over rising crime, increased migration, and economic stagnation during the Boric administration. Kast centered his campaign on these issues, advancing proposals to expel undocumented migrants, strengthen policing and punitive security policies, cut taxes, and reduce state regulation. This law-and-order platform proved electorally effective, allowing him to secure a decisive margin of victory.
Beyond security policy, Kast has also signalled his intentions to deregulate key economic sectors, including aquaculture, and accelerate extractivist policies by speeding up the permitting process and attracting increased foreign investment in the sectors like mining. Critics warn that such measures could weaken environmental oversight and intensify existing conflicts over land, water, and Indigenous rights. As Kast prepares to take office, Chile faces a critical moment, with hard-won advances in human rights, environmental protection, and democratic accountability increasingly under strain.
The Kast Family in Chile
José Antonio Kast’s political rise is best understood from his family’s history, which is deeply tied up with the violence and neoliberal restructuring of Chile’s dictatorship. The Kast family patriarch, Michael Kast Schindele, was a Bavarian lieutenant who joined the Nazi Youth at age 18. After World War II, he assumed a false identity and fled to South America, ultimately settling in the commune of Buin in Chile, where he opened a sausage factory. His role during the dictatorship has been the subject of serious allegations. In a report aired by Chilean TV channel Chilevisión, former detainees identified Kast Schindele and the eldest son Christian as civilian participants in acts of torture. Another survivor, Luis Martínez, testified that Kast Schindele denounced workers as communists and took part in physical assaults, allegedly declaring “we need to kill all of these Marxists” during interrogation sessions.
The family name has also appeared in connection with the Caravan of Paine, a coordinated campaign of repression in which 70 rural workers, supporters of Salvador Allende, were detained, tortured, and disappeared. Paine became one of the regions with the highest concentration of forced disappearances during the Pinochet regime. Survivors and human rights organizations have accused members of the Kast family of playing a direct role in the violence.
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