During a recent conversation at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio commented on the fact that more countries in South America seemed to be “coming our way,” moving into the U.S. orbit. Rubio, who is reportedly organizing right-wing governments to consolidate an alliance to isolate Brazilian President Lula da Silva, is looking hopefully to Chile’s Nov. 16 presidential elections in which ultra-rightwing, ultra-Catholic José Antonio Kast Rist, an ardent defender of fascist dictator Augusto Pinochet, is the main challenger to frontrunner Jeanette Jara, a popular former Labor Minister and member of the Communist Party.
José Antonio Kast, whose older brother Miguel served as an original “Chicago Boy” as Pinochet’s Labor Minister and then Central Bank President, was known to have said that if Pinochet were alive, “he’d vote for me.” This is Kast’s third run for the presidency, which he narrowly lost in 2021 to outgoing President Gabriel Boric. It was during that presidential campaign that then-U.S. Senator Marco Rubio traveled to Chile to meet with Kast and offer his support. Rubio subsequently hosted Kast in Washington when the candidate made a U.S. tour. Kast operates in the Milei-Jair Bolsonaro-CPAC orbit and fully backed the Trump administration’s “punishment” of Lula after Brazil’s Supreme Court found former President Bolsonaro guilty of plotting a coup against Lula.
