By Robert Inlakesh
José Antonio Kast seeks to revive Chile’s cooperation with Israel and has been repeatedly critical of the past government’s stances on the issue.
Chile recently elected the far-right José Antonio Kast as its President, coming amidst a wave of ultra-nationalism that is taking over Latin America. This shift in favour of US-backed right-wing movements across the region is looking great for Israel’s Isaac Accords agenda.
Chilean President-elect José Antonio Kast has made headlines, following his recent campaign victory, after it was previously revealed that his father was a Nazi soldier during WW2. He has also come to power on a Trumpian right-wing platform that has made him a deeply polarising figure amongst his own people.
Like US President Donald Trump, Kast is also a devout supporter of Israel and is set to reverse Chile’s former socialist President Gabriel Boric’s decision to sever ties with Tel Aviv. While Chile has the largest Palestinian population of any nation outside of the Middle East, Kast’s hardline stances in favour of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s policies are seen to have represented an attack upon them as a community.
Although Kast’s prioritization of re-establishing ties with Israel, and by extension endorsing the genocide of Palestinians, is barely out of character for the right-wing leader. He is an open supporter of former Chilean President Augusto Pinochet.
For context, Pinochet came to power in a CIA-backed coup, which overthrew the popular socialist President Salvador Allende. Pinochet would then go on to murder tens of thousands of his own people, setting up a horrendous torture program which led to all kinds of human rights abuses.
As they say, birds of a feather flock together. Therefore, it should come as little surprise that Israel was one of the primary arms suppliers and backers of the Pinochet regime. When the US imposed an arms embargo on his regime in Santiago, the Israelis not only refused to comply but expanded their military support substantially.
Tel Aviv supplied the Pinochet regime with a range of military hardware, provided intelligence sharing support, and additionally sent Israeli personnel to train Chile’s security forces. Israel even trained the infamous DINA (Dirección de Inteligencia Nacional) secret police forces, who were responsible for the extra-judicial executions of around 3,000 people, mass sexual abuse, and torture. There are still approximately 1,000 Chileans who were believed to have disappeared by the DINA forces who still remain missing, although that regime fell in 1990.
José Antonio Kast seeks to revive Chile’s cooperation with Israel and has been repeatedly critical of the past government’s stances on the issue. Since October 7, 2023, the grovelling over Israel has been constant. However, Kast has consistently stood against the Palestinian people. Back in September of 2022, he described a 17-year-old Palestinian, named Odai Trad Salah, who was killed by Israeli soldiers, as a “guerrilla terrorist”, lashing out at his government for protesting the murder.
Just as is the case with other right-wing Presidents and opposition movement leaders across Latin America, Kast is also an opponent of Iran and uses Israeli propaganda to fear-monger over potential attacks on Chile that could originate in Tehran.
Back in April of 2024, when Iran had launched a retaliatory ballistic missile strike against Israel, Kast was quick to weigh in on X (formerly Twitter), stating the following:
“Iran launches a drone and missile attack on Israel. They could be the same drones that it gifted to Bolivia to monitor our borders. Chile has a serious national security problem, and we have a weak and inexperienced government to face it.”
Kast’s victory is seen as a major setback for socialist movements across Latin America and a massive win for Israel, signalling that Chile, once one of the fiercest opponents of the genocide in Gaza, will now likely join the “Isaac Accords” agreement. Having failed to attract any significant nations in the Arab World to join the “Abraham Accords”, this new initiative seeks to expand Israeli influence and cooperation across Latin America instead.
(The Palestine Chronicle)
– Robert Inlakesh is a journalist, writer, and documentary filmmaker. He focuses on the Middle East, specializing in Palestine. He contributed this article to The Palestine Chronicle.
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