Chile elected a new ultra-conservative and pro-Israel president on Sunday, a result set to mark a sharp shift in the country’s foreign policy.
José Antonio Kast, 59, defeated his communist rival Jeanette Jara by 58 percent to 42 percent, campaigning on a platform focused on security and immigration reform, including tighter controls along Chile’s northern borders with Peru and Bolivia.
Kast is a deeply polarising figure among Chileans, due to both his family history and his ultra-conservative views.
A controversial family
A lawyer by profession, Kast is a staunch Catholic and has been active in politics for around three decades, with this election marking his third presidential bid.
In 2016, he broke away from Chile’s main conservative party to found the Republican Party.
Beyond his opposition to abortion, same sex marriage, divorce and euthanasia, Kast has openly expressed admiration for the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, a period marked by widespread human rights abuses. One of Kast’s brothers served as a minister during that era.
His family background has also drawn scrutiny. Kast’s parents settled in Chile in 1950 after leaving post-war Germany.
His father was a member of the Nazi Party during the Second World War and served in the German military. Kast has denied that his father was a Nazi, saying he was “forcibly” conscripted.
Hellbound and Down 