It was a symbol hidden in plain sight. On February 24, two weeks before taking office as President of Chile, José Antonio Caste unveiled his official portrait.
The photo shows the 60-year-old leader in a blue suit, presidential sash and a striking coat sewn in the middle.
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It was striking, as no president had posed with a coat of arms on a mantle since the fall of Augusto Pinochet in 1990. Pinochet was the last leader to do so.
For critics, the crest is another expression of the cast’s professed attachment to the former tough guy.
But as Kast takes office on Wednesday, analysts question whether the embrace of Pinochet is nostalgia for Latin America’s past dictatorships — or just a sign of frustration with the status quo.
María Fernanda García, director of Chile’s Museum of Memory and Human Rights, noted that there is a shift toward more stringent policies around the world.
He credits the “crisis of democracy” with helping “in many parts of the world transform a past filled with horror into something glorified by people who didn’t live through it.”
“It’s not what we expected after learning from World War II and other conflicts and dictatorships,” García added.
Still, he noted, young people in particular are being influenced by reactionary narratives on social media.
“Rebellion these days is not against war or dictatorships, but rebellion is against the establishment,” Garcia said. “And what is established is democracy, respect for human rights.”
Who was Pinochet?
Caste won the most votes in Chile’s history in December’s presidential election. More than seven million Chileans voted for him in the run-off, with him winning more than 58 percent of the vote.
His success came despite critics pointing to previous statements showing respect for Pinochet.
Cost had predicted during the previous race that if Pinochet had lived, “they would have voted for me.”
Pinochet seized power in a 1973 military coup, ousting Chile’s democratically elected leader.
Over the next 17 years, he waged a systematic campaign of repression against his political opponents, resulting in the deaths of more than 3,000 people. Thousands more were imprisoned and tortured.
Kast was a young man during the dictatorship. But even then he participated in the youth campaign to keep Pinochet in power.
While Kast downplayed those ties during his recent presidential run, his connection to Pinochet has been part of his personal brand for much of his political career.
Felipe Gonzalez Mac-Connell, author of the book Kast: The Chilean Far-Right, explains that the influence of the Pinochet government can be linked to Kast’s embrace of neoliberal economics and his conservative approach to issues such as crime and women’s rights.
“His entire political project is an endorsement of the cultural values of the dictatorship, the economic policies of the dictatorship, and the various civil collaborators of the dictatorship,” Mac-Connell said.
Pinochet’s associates also formed the cornerstone of Caste’s incoming government.
Before his inauguration, Caste named two former lawyers for Pinochet, Fernando Barros and Fernando Rabat, to his cabinet.
He will serve as Minister of Defense and Minister of Justice and Human Rights respectively.
Frustration with the status quo
However, the legacy of Chile’s coup remains a divisive issue in the country, and experts warn it is difficult to know how many Chileans currently support Pinochet’s platform.
A 2023 poll by marketing research group Mori Chile found that one-third of Chileans believed the 1973 coup was justified.
Pinochet remains a powerful figure in Chilean politics – and not just by cast.
During the 2025 presidential campaign, another right-wing candidate, Johannes Kaiser, also expressed his support for the coup. He eventually won 14 percent of the vote in the first round of the election.
But according to Mac-Connell, support for the legacy of the dictatorship does not necessarily drive voters to cast.
Instead, McConnell believes Caste came to power as a result of a variety of factors, including the shortcomings of Chile’s left – and frustration with his predecessor, outgoing President Gabriel Boric.
McConnell suggested that Cast formed his own party as an alternative to the status quo. Kast’s Republican Party is seen as more conservative than the right-wing establishment.
A regional trend?
Peruvian political scientist José Alejandro Godoy, who is writing a book about authoritarianism in Latin America, is exploring how caste can be part of a broader trend in the region’s politics.
Other prominent Latin American leaders have similarly embraced their countries’ former dictatorships.
In Brazil, for example, former President Jair Bolsonaro openly worshiped his country’s military dictatorship. He has since been convicted of trying to overthrow the democratic rule of law.
In Argentina, meanwhile, President Javier Milieu has played down the atrocities that killed or disappeared an estimated 30,000 people in the 1970s and ’80s.
Godoy argues that the rise of these leaders is not an expression of “nostalgia for an earlier model or era”, but rather a reflection of a deep dissatisfaction with today’s politics.
“People don’t think politics will change anything in their lives in the near or medium term,” Godoy said.
Amid the yawning apathy and mistrust, he explained, “we are looking for characters that are closer to the authoritarian vision.”
Godoy pointed to the political situation in his own country, Peru, which will hold new presidential elections in April.
One of the frontrunners is Keiko Fujimori, daughter of the late Alberto Fujimori, a separatist leader widely condemned as a dictator. Her campaign slogans reflected her father’s plea for Peruvian strength and stability.
“Let’s bring order to Peru,” says one slogan. The other is simply, “force of order.”
The late Fujimori was finally convicted in 2009 of human rights abuses, including his use of death squads.
Still, there has always been a sector of Peruvian society that minimizes human rights abuses in favor of social and economic goals, Godoy said.
In Chile, they were similar: Caste’s appeal was not nostalgia for Pinochet but a thirst for order, which Caste armed with his aggressive public safety platform and proposed crackdown on immigration.
“The thinking is,” Godoy said, “that you trade security for civil liberties.”
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