Chile’s new president faces big challenges at home and abroad |
Decades after a 1973 bombing which left its walls in ruins and led President Salvador Allende to take his own life, the Palacio de La Moneda — Chile’s neoclassical presidential palace at the heart of Santiago — is once again becoming a private residence. Breaking nearly seventy years of precedent, newly elected president Jose Antonio Kast moved into the government headquarters following his inauguration this week.
Kast’s landslide victory last December, in which he won roughly 58% of the runoff vote against Communist Party candidate Jeannette Jara, marks Chile’s sharpest rightward turn since its return to democracy in 1990. His election reflects the depth of public disillusionment with the Left.
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For decades, Chile was considered Latin America’s economic success story. After the return of democracy in 1990, the country combined market-oriented reforms with moderated social spending, building one of the region’s most stable economies. Poverty fell dramatically, foreign investment poured in, and Chile became a model often cited by economists and international institutions.
The 2019 estallido social, a wave of mass protests that began over a subway fare........