LATIN AMERICA
Elections in Chile: a turning point?
The bourgeoisie may have opted for a return to Pinochet's dictatorship
In the first round of the Chilean presidential elections, the candidate to succeed Gabriel Boric’s government, Jeanette Jara – representing the moderate wing of the Chilean Communist Party – failed.
Before analyzing the elections themselves, it is important to note that the main leader of the Communist Party has been arrested and is under house arrest in connection with an alleged corruption scandal. This scandal involved an initiative he took, when mayor, to create a health aid policy through state-run pharmacies, where the state would buy the medicines and sell them to the population to save the people money. He was arrested for corruption, and the initiative lasted about a month.
At a time when the pharmacy sector is being shaken up, and given the possibility of the politician winning the election, the arrest is highly suspicious. It has become very common in Latin America these days for imperialism to arrest those most likely to win the election, as seen in the recent case of Bolivia with Evo Morales. This only makes the idea that the judiciary in Brazil is upstanding, even more ridiculous.
In electoral terms, Jeanette Jara achieved 26% of the vote, coming first. José Antonio Kast, from the far right, came second with 24%. In third place, we have the People’s Party (a right-wing party), with 19% of the vote. This would be the second largest party in terms of members and affiliates. Johannes Kaiser, a sort of Argentinian Javier Milei, had 13% of the vote, and the right-wing Independent Democratic Union party also had 13% of the vote. Unlike in previous elections, Christian Democracy is on the United for Chile ticket, which is Jeanette Jara’s ticket.
The expectation is that all four parties in subsequent positions will vote for José Antonio Kast. This means that the right, in total, would have reached 70% of the vote.
It’s a similar situation to the Spanish Revolution, where the entire bourgeoisie grouped together on the far right. Kast is extreme right-wing, pro-imperialist, with a pedigree. His uncle was a torturer, his grandfather was a murderer, and the whole family is heavily involved with Augusto Pinochet’s repression apparatus. It’s a family of political delinquents from the time of the country’s bloodiest dictatorship. Kast’s father wasn’t just a torturer: he was a lieutenant and a member of Hitler’s Nazi Party. He fled to Chile in 1950 and supported Pinochet. This shows that the bourgeoisie is clearly opting for a regime of force.
The big question that remains is: will Kast govern in a constitutional manner or impose a dictatorship? This needs to be monitored very closely. With the level of coups d’état that we are seeing in all countries, it is possible that this will be a new turning point in the situation.
Kast’s brother was minister of labor in the Pinochet government, with a degree in economics from the infamous University of Chicago. This inspires a lot of concern, because Chile had a very strong popular mobilization three or four years ago. This mobilization, first of all, frightened the bourgeoisie. The repression was very intense.
Then the bourgeoisie allowed the election of Boric, supposedly a representative of this popular mobilization. In reality, he came in to calm the situation and allow what is happening now: the victory of the right. At the time, Boric competed with Kast, but the bourgeoisie believed that Kast would add fuel to the fire, so he couldn’t win. The Boric government was a disaster.
It may be that, at this moment, the bourgeoisie will look and say: “We can’t have a mobilization of the size that there was here in Chile before.” The second mobilization is always worse than the first, because in the second, the masses are already more experienced and determined. It could be that the Chilean bourgeoisie has decided that there won’t be a second one, or that if there is, Kast will repress it with force.
