Four years after Chile voted to rewrite Augusto Pinochet's constitution, President-elect José Antonio Kast has appointed two of the late dictator's defense attorneys to his cabinet—a move that signals the country's democratic moment may be running in reverse.
The appointments, confirmed by Agence France-Presse, represent the most explicit rehabilitation of Pinochet-era figures since Chile's return to democracy in 1990. For a region that spent the last decade grappling with whether its left-wing wave could deliver on democratic promises, Chile's turn offers a sobering answer: the pendulum swings both ways.
From defending dictatorship to running ministries
The lawyers in question spent years defending Pinochet against human rights charges stemming from his 1973-1990 dictatorship, which disappeared more than 3,000 people and tortured tens of thousands. Now they will oversee ministries in a government that campaigned on "order" and "security"—the same rhetoric that justified military rule a generation ago.
For Chileans who lived through the dictatorship, the symbolism is crushing. For younger Chileans who voted overwhelmingly to scrap Pinochet's constitution in 2020, only to watch conservative forces defeat two progressive rewrites, the appointments confirm what many feared: that constitutional change without political power means nothing.
Latin America's democratic reckoning
This is not just a Chilean story. It is a Latin American story about what happens when democratic institutions—elections, courts, constitutional processes—operate in societies still divided over their authoritarian past.
Brazil is grappling with Jair Bolsonaro's legacy and his family's political survival. elected , who has praised military rule. 's governs with near-dictatorial powers and remains wildly popular.
