Chile defeats communism

Chile has a long history with communism and it is actually quite complex. In the modern day, the Communist Party of Chile is described as having a strong left-wing political presence as part of a democratic republic. Sounds familiar?

In Chile, party members hold important positions within the current government structure while their political identity is considered to be moderate in nature that commits to work within the democratic system in order to achieve social and economic change.

But a few days ago, Chile took a turn as Jose Antonio Kast won the Chilean presidency. Kast is considered an ultra conservative and a supporter of former dictator Augusto Pinochet. He defeated left-wing candidate and communist party leader Jeannette Jara with 58.2 percent of the vote. President-elect Kast was victorious in every region and colored the entire country blue, which confirms the far right turn that is happening in South America.

Many that day celebrated as they expressed that they escaped communism, but some political analysts say that the 20-point gap does not mean it should be interpreted as a massive victory or support for the newly elected president’s platform. However, from the United States and all the way to Hungary and even Argentina, right-wing leaders are praising Jose Antonio Kast’s victory.

According to some reports, Kast’s campaign promises were directly inspired by President Trump’s policies, saying that the rising migration over the past decade had fueled the rise in crime.

Kast’s victory has been said to be the most far right leader Chile has ever elected since the end of the military dictatorship in 1990. Some analysts believe that the recent election is part of a right-wing wave sweeping across Latin America and alongside this rightward movement is also a regional swing towards hardline security measures.

But it seems that as a whole, Chile has simply rejected communism altogether, as thousands flooded the streets with American flags and hats saying “Make Chile Great Again” – and it seems even clearer to me that the Left is panicking. The people have spoken and their voices are loud.

The die is “kast” and Chileans are done with socialism. They are shifting right. Kast won on a hardline law and order agenda promising to combat rising crime, undocumented migration and left-wing ideology which he said is damaging peace and security.

While many who voted for Kast do not agree with his tributes to Pinochet, voters expressed that it only represents a tiny fraction of voters and not the majority of people who celebrated the electoral victory, seeing Kast as their best option and being extremely tired of the government they had.

Having said this, it is clear that peace and order is a key component sweeping across the Latin American countries and Chile’s presidential runoff is a major indication of a deepening regional shift to law-and-order politics. Kast’s win marks the latest victory for the resurgent right in Latin America and his election represents the latest victory in a string of votes that have booted out incumbent governments across the Latin American peninsula, putting into power mainly right-wing leaders from Argentina to Bolivia.