From “Nazi” to calls for “reflection”: the Latin American community accuses the coup of being Kast’s triumph in Chile

José Antonio Kast’s victory in Chile fell like a jug of cold water in Latin America, but he also left to discover the different ways of digesting the power coup. In Brazil, Lula da Silva limited himself to congratulating the representative of the Chilean ultrarecha, without readings or warnings. Mexican leader Claudia Sheinbaum was something more and called on the “thinking” of progressive movements to understand the reason behind this Victoria promoter. But it was Gustavo Petro who, once again, raised the decibels from Colombia with an incendiary message in

The disparity of responses, which came together during the night, Nicolás Maduro with references to Adolf Hitler and a warning -“the Venezolanos (they) are respected, cautious”-, responds on the ground to different styles, depending on the strategic position that each occupies on the continent. Lula favors dialogue over open confrontation, a strategy which has earned him many good diplomatic results, even before his American counterpart Donald Trump. Last month, Casa Blanca removed Alexandre de Moraes from the list of people sanctioned by the Magnitsky law, where he had been part of a group of terrorists and narcos for months. A few days earlier, Trump had delivered meat, coffee and a large part of Brazilian imports with which he planned to punish Lula in court for his coup against ex-President Jair Bolsonaro.

With the Argentinian Javier Milei, the relationship is as distant as it could be between people who hate each other, but the Brazilian government’s order has kept all diplomatic channels open. That’s how it was. Within Argentina, they recognize that the bilateral relationship in Bambalinas is one of the best and most important, as evidenced by the success of the negotiations between Mercosur and the European Union for a free trade treaty.

In the case of Chile, Lula should have little to fear, whatever the political color of the government. The strategy will be the same as with Argentina. The Brazilian therefore was quick to congratulate Kast, although he is at the Chilean ideological antipodes, emphasizing that the electoral process was “democratic, transparent and orderly”.

Sheinbaum also took the time to post his congratulations on his social media, even before mentioning Kast, celebrating the Chilean city for leading “a peaceful and democratic electoral journey.” The next day, during his morning press tour from the Palacio Nacional, there was a call to analyze the result of the Chilean elections. “This is the city of Chile that elected the one who wanted it to be governed. I believe this is a moment of reflection for the progressive movements of Latin America and why these circumstances arise,” he said. He further ruled out that an ultraderecha movement could spread during certain elections in Mexico, where Morena, his party, enjoys great popular support. “Here is unity. Sometimes, when there is no unity in the movements, this reduction in support is generated,” he fumes.

Regardless, Lula and Sheinbaum chose to play down a clearly uncomfortable result, but it is not an anomaly in the regional picture. In recent months, Argentina, Bolivia, Paraguay, Ecuador and now Chile have made the most difficult decision. Petro, however, is not afraid of ideological confrontation. Quite the contrary: the search, even if it provokes angry reactions, diplomatic tensions and indignation from its recipients.

Chile’s response will arrive soon. Boric’s foreign minister, Alberto van Klaveren, sent a note of protest to the Colombian ambassador to Chile a few hours after Petro’s tweet. “His statements constitute a lack of respect and inappropriate interference in domestic political issues” which “denounces on the ground the elected president (José Antonio Kast) as the sovereign decision of the city of Chile and the democratic solidity of our institutions,” he warned in a video of the cancellation.

In Kast’s case, Petro attacked the unapologetic return of authoritarian discourse. “Fascism advances, it never gives a hand to a Nazi or a Nazi either; it dies in a human being. It is sad that Pinochet does not have to impose himself in power, but it is even sadder now that the villages are eliminating Pinochet: they are elected or not, they are the sons of Hitler and Hitler is killing the villages”, he wrote in the morning. lunes on your X profile, your main speaker on any current Colombian or international topic. The Colombian had publicly supported the candidate of the left bloc, the communist Jeannette Jara.