Chile Swears in Jose Antonio Kast, Most Right-Wing Government Since Dictatorship

Latin America Correspondent Jon Bonfiglio speaks to Henry Bonsu for Times Radio, + Extras. 

Transcript

Henry Bonsu 0:00

It's everybody's a Thursday night. Now, uh, Chile swore in their new president last night, Jose Antonio Kast. The 60-year-old's uh career is somewhat ex controversial and seized him in some of the most extreme right-wing fringes of Chilean politics. Two weeks before his inauguration as Chile's president, Mr. Kast unveiled his official portrait and it showed him he's a 60-year-old. Um, you know uh some people say he's a still the fox, but uh he's the he's the president, he's wanted to be for a while, he's now got it, wearing a blue suit, the presidential stash, and a conspicuous coat of arms stitched in the middle. Let's talk to Jon Bonfiglio, Latin America Correspondent, who's been uh tracking this closely. Jon, hello again. Hi Henry, how are you? Hi, we've been talking about Jose Antonio Kast for a while. He's been sworn in. Um, what did you get? What impression did you get of his um his acceptance speech, his inauguration speech, as I say? Um what clue did he give as to how he's going to govern?

Jon Bonfiglio 0:57

Yeah, yesterday was was the day. Um, I guess the big question is, is he going to take up this sort of extreme right wing populist position, or is he going to temper uh some of his policies as he as he enters power? And and that's what's really up for up for grabs at the moment. I think a subtle reading of him as an individual would suggest that even though his policy positions are pretty extreme, we can come to those in a bit potentially. Um actually um he he isn't the kind of sort of uh Trumpian, Nayib Bukelian in El Salvador sort of populist figure. He is a little bit uh quieter, he is a little bit more considered despite a lot of the bombast that we heard during the election campaign, uh, specifically as regards uh crime and immigration, of course. Right.

Henry Bonsu 1:46

And when it comes to his intro, what would you say is at the top? And uh, do we get a sense of what he wants to do and how he plans to do it?

Jon Bonfiglio 1:56

Yeah, I mean, the the the the the two most important are immigration and and crime, and often that those two are conflated um together. Um immigration statistics uh for Chile are serious, whatever your perspective of them. The uh the immigration population in Chile has doubled to 1.6 million over a five-year period. And for a country with a population of 20 million, that's that's pretty serious. So his policy positions are to, and it's worth saying that almost all of those um immigrants are Venezuelans. So it's a it's a result of the sort of the economic meltdown that has that we've seen take place in Venezuela over a 15-year period, which has affected the entire region. And his policy positions are twofold. One is to uh summarily uh deport and force to leave all Venezuelans that are in um they're in the country, and then secondary, as a second position is to sort of to build uh or dig a sort of a fence, a wall, a barrier between especially Chile's northern border and and its neighbors. So the problem can't can't occur again. And then secondly, it is to do with, of course, um crime, law and order, and in this regard as well, he is not the first individual that wants to pursue Nayib Bukele's policies in in El Salvador, which have um, of course, again, depending on your perspective, have involved serious human rights abuses, but at the same time have actually led to a staggering downturn in in crime and gang violence uh in the country. And so uh his his perspective and his government is driven towards uh pretty uh right-wing policy positions as regard law and order.

Henry Bonsu 3:35

And what does it say about the mood of the Chilean electorate that uh Jose Antonio Kast, um, given his family background, has been so decisively elected, you know, in the second round, because I mean his father was a former Wehrmacht soldier, and and his family was involved in the atrocities committed during the coup against Allende in 1973.

Jon Bonfiglio 4:00

Yeah, his brother Miguel Kast served as president of the central bank under Pinochet in the 70s and 80s. There's a long history there, and and this this presidency now, I think it's important to underscore, is uh returns uh Chile to its most right-wing position that we've seen since the autocracy of of Pinochet at the time. I think that the the position or the the perspective as regards the Chilean uh Chilean population is interesting because um it remains one of the safest countries in Latin America, but that's not the perception. It is one of the one of the the electorates that is most fearful of crime uh on the planet. Uh, there is a 63% uh fear of crime in Chile, which is twice the average, um, the sort of the global average. So there's a significant disconnect between actual crime and people's perception of crime. And again, this sort of conflates it a little bit with with um this sort of sense that Chilean society has changed significantly recently because of the large number of migrants that have um that have entered the country. So what's very clear here is uh more than it being an election of Kast, I think it's that it's a failure of the middle ground, it's a failure of standard uh politicians. Uh, Gabriel Boric leaves the presidency with the worst approval rating again since uh since Chile returned to democracy and is roundly believed to have failed on delivering some pretty sort of standard middle of the road uh policy positions, a lot of which people would argue not necessarily his fault, uh, as happened throughout the world. Of course, we're still living in a sort of post-pandemic uh economy, uh which people are struggling with. Um so uh things were not in his favor, but by the same token, the the election of caste is an extreme response to extreme social and economic situations as lived by the Chileans over the last few years?

Henry Bonsu 5:52

And Jon, you know, you probably know that I'm a bit of a student of the African continent. I uh watch very closely what the African Union and some of the uh member states do. Um and you know, this attempt to revive so-called Pan-Africanism. To what extent is there an equivalent in Latin America, a Latin American consciousness? And um, which countries would you say are driving it? And where is Chile in that? Are they are they part of it at the core or are they disconnected?

Jon Bonfiglio 6:17

Well, historically, Chile, which if we go back to the end of the sort of Pinochet uh period, the Pinochet regime, um, has been a um a sort of of the soft left, if you like, has been an arguer for an argument, as with perhaps Uruguay, for um for a tempered for tempered socialism, for tempered inclusivity. Of course, that has now changed significantly. We're now seeing what um what some individuals have called the blue tide, where we we've seen in the last few months alone, we've seen uh, of course, Chile, Bolivia, Costa Rica, and Honduras electing right-wing leaders, and you add that to Argentina, Ecuador, Paraguay, El Salvador, Panama, and uh and and others. Um, as regards a Latin American consciousness, I thought I do think that there is a sort of a general sense of certain things that draw Latin America uh to uh together, but politically that's always up for graves. And certainly at the moment, I think we're we're experiencing a pretty significant transition. It is worth saying at the same time, though, that the three most populous countries in in Latin America, specifically Mexico, Brazil, and Colombia, uh, are continue to be under uh left-wing uh administrations, although two of those, uh Colombia and Brazil, have elections coming up in the next few months.

Henry Bonsu 7:33

All right.

Jon Bonfiglio 7:33

Jon Bonfiglio Latin, America Correspondent.

Henry Bonsu 7:36

Thank you very much indeed for joining us.

Jon Bonfiglio 7:38

Hi everyone, here's just a few extra thoughts on um José Antonio Kast's uh swearing in yesterday. There's definitely a sense that his policies on whether it would be the environment, social welfare, privatization, of course, immigration, law and order, and also women's reproductive rights are likely to transform Chile. Judith Marin, for instance, uh Minister for Women, incoming Minister for Women, who's also the youngest member of the cabinet at 30 years old, is uh is an evangelical, she's anti-abortion. She believes Chile is living a moral crisis. Um worth um reminding, I think, reminding ourselves as well, that currently abortion in Chile is only legal in the cases of a risk to mother's life, fatal, fetal abnormality, and rape. And um Judith Marine is looking to roll even these limited uh policy positions back. Um also just a little bit um of extra context on Gabrielle Boric. Yeah, as I sort of mentioned, it's perhaps not fully fair to say that Boric's presidency was a failure, although is the general perspective. There were notable reforms on healthcare access and labor rights, but the point is that the electorate did perceive it as a failure. And really that's because he there was a an uh there wasn't um he was in unable to deliver on the highest profile challenges that he faced, which were um, as I mentioned in the interview, inability to tame post-pandemic costs and inflation. But also there was a much vaunted constitutional reform that was pushed forward um as he was as he was elected, uh, that which sort of followed on from mass national demonstrations in 2020, um, and that didn't go go through. And of course, he was unable to uh address also crime and crime and immigration. Um and just uh on a final um final thought, um you won't be surprised to hear that of course the usual right-wing figures attended the um the the swearing in, as well as uh the Spanish uh king, you know, traditional lefty he, uh, but also of note, Flavio Bolsonaro, uh Jay Bolsonaro, ex-president, old um president of Brazil, attended. Um the perspective is that he's going to be challenging Lula da Silva in the in the Brazilian election coming up towards the end of the year. Keiko Fujimori, uh historic uh ongoing candidate, uh daughter of Alberto Fujimori, who, of course, we've we we did a series on the troubles, the electoral political troubles that that uh Peru has uh historically experienced over the last couple of generations and continues to experience. And of course, there's an election coming up there in the next month. Uh and Maria Corina Machado. Uh Venezuelan Maria Corina Machado, the of the of the opposition, uh, was also there as well. Um, a fact that perhaps is more about continuing to uh establish um uh relevance and the relevance of the Venezuelan opposition than than anything else, because as we've said before, that opposition is currently completely sidelined. Um so it was interesting to see her and Flavio Bolsonaro happily greeting each other at the uh swearing in of Jose Antonio Kast in Chile. Hope you're all well uh out there, wherever it is that you are, and uh look forward to uh connecting with you all again soon. Good night.