The pendulum in which the left and the right succeed one another in power is healthy in a democracy. In Chile, after the end of the Pinochet dictatorship in 1990, there was a succession of four center-left and center presidents: Patricio Aylwin, Eduardo Frei, Ricardo Lagos and Michelle Bachelet. In 2010, Sebástian Piñera, from the right, became president. This is where the alternation in power began, with the return of Bachelet to power in 2014, Piñera again in 2018 and the young leftist Gabriel Boric in 2022. The election of José Antonio Kast last Sunday would indicate the continuation of this Chilean trend, but there are divergences.
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Kast is far-right. He does not follow the line of a more moderate right, as Piñera did. Worse still, he is passionate about Pinochet, a figure who led a regime responsible for the deaths of thousands of people. How can someone who calls themselves a democrat celebrate a dictator? It’s one thing to defend an ultra-conservative agenda. Another, defending a dictatorship. Compare with Boric who, although a socialist, always condemned left-wing dictatorships. After all, it is above all democratic.
In an article published in the “New York Times”, Chilean writer Ariel Dorfman states that “Kast’s victory is a political and ethical earthquake. For the first time in Chile’s contemporary history, it will be possible for the most powerful man in the country to use the force of executive power to sanitize the country’s violent past with the aim of erasing from memory murders and exiles, torture and concentration camps.”
Of course, Kast will not implement a dictatorship like that of Pinochet and tends to follow democratic rules. But it is revolting that he celebrates a murderous regime.
I recommend two texts this week. The first, mentioned above, is that of Ariel Dorfman, a Chilean writer, published in the “New York Times”. It is about José Antonio Kast and his admiration for the Pinochet dictatorship.
The other is an article written by Steven Levitsky, Lucan A. Way and Daniel Ziblatt in “Foreign Affairs” about the authoritarianism of Donald Trump.
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