Kast, the ultra-rightist who vindicates Pinochet and promises a Chile in order.
An admirer of the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship and in tune with leaders such as Jair Bolsonaro, Donald Trump and the Spanish Vox party, the Chilean far-right José Antonio Kast is presented as the candidate of order for Chile.
“They say I’m extreme, but extreme in what?” The candidate asked himself in the campaign, who will contest the second round against the leftist Gabriel Boric on December 19.
“Don’t treat me as far-right, because I’m not (…) I hope they qualify me as a candidate of common sense,” said 55-year-old Kast.
This lawyer was active for 20 years in the ultraconservative Independent Democratic Union (UDI) party until in 2019 he created the Republican Party that today leads him to his second electoral attempt. In 2017 it had reached fourth place, with 7.93% of the votes.
At the close of his campaign, on Thursday, in a wealthy Santiago neighborhood, Kast promised to regain “freedom” for the country through “order and security.”
“We are willing to give our lives if necessary, to give our lives for our beloved Chile. God and the country is what inspires us, ”said the ultra-conservative. “We have played a majority of Chileans who want a calm and safe country,” he said, after leading the vote on Sunday.
A nostalgic for Pinochet
Kast, married with nine children, is an active member of the conservative Schoenstatt Catholic movement. The son of German immigrants who arrived in Chile in 1951, his father enlisted in the army during the German Nazi regime, although the candidate has said it was out of “obligation.”
In Chile, his family settled in the town of Paine, on the outskirts of Santiago, where they made their fortune with a factory of traditional German sausages and Bavaria, a restaurant chain from which it dissociated itself a few years ago.
Human rights groups denounce that members of his family collaborated in the arrest of opponents in the town of Paine during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990).
Kast’s first public position was as councilor for the commune of Buin (near Paine), between 1996 and 2000. He then jumped to Parliament and was a deputy for four consecutive terms.
In this new presidential foray, he maintains the smile and parsimony that characterize him, although as the election approached, he was more tense after being forced to highlight his well-known admiration for the Pinochet era, which left more than 3,200 dead and missing.
“There is a situation that makes a difference with what happens in Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua. I believe that what happened in Nicaragua fully reflects what did not happen in Chile (with Pinochet): democratic elections were held and political opponents were not locked up. That makes the fundamental difference, ”argued Kast.
From his point of view, the Constitution that was promulgated in 1980 during the Pinochet regime “contained the entire transition to democracy” and the military government handed over power after a plebiscite. “Tell me, what dictatorship has done that?”
Kast proposes to eliminate women’s ministry
In his government program, he proposes a reduction in public spending, a tax reduction and the elimination of various ministries, including that of Women.
He is the only one of the seven candidates who proposes to maintain the private pension system established during the dictatorship, highly criticized in public opinion.
It proposes the intervention of the Armed Forces in the region of La Araucanía, in the south of Chile, burdened by the conflict with indigenous Mapuches and raising the prison sentences for common crimes.
In one of the most controversial parts, it proposes within a state of Exception the detention in houses or places other than the prisons of opponents and the closure of the National Institute of Human Rights, in addition to the construction of a ditch to prevent the entry of immigrants irregular.
Also the repeal of compensatory benefits to the victims of human rights violations during the dictatorship and the creation of an “International Anti-Radical Left Coordination”. (I)
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