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.
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 increase and swelled into a nationwide uprising against inequality, propelled a generation of progressives to power. Gabriel Boric, the former student leader who rode that energy into the presidency in 2022, promised structural transformation, healthcare reform, a pension overhaul, and tax redistribution. He delivered remarkably little. Two attempts to rewrite the constitution collapsed, the economy stagnated, and crime became the top issue. By the time Boric left office, the polling firm Cadem found that more than half of Chileans considered his government the worst since 1990.
Into that void stepped Kast, campaigning on security, the economy, and immigration. His “emergency government” has announced military deployments to the crime-ridden northern borders with Bolivia and Peru, as well as a sweeping state audit.
In this third presidential run, Kast sidestepped the culture war topics that sank his 2021 bid. Instead, the 60-year-old kept his message tightly focused on public order and economic recovery. The opposition continues to portray him as a far-right figure, frequently invoking his connections with and comments about the Pinochet era. This reflects how the legacy of General Augusto Pinochet, who ruled Chile as dictator from 1973 to 1990, remains deeply divisive in Chilean society.
Tens of thousands were imprisoned, tortured, or killed under Pinochet’s regime. At the same time, the regime also left behind one of the most successful countries on the continent. But in 2026, especially for those many Chileans born after the dictatorship, more pressing questions revolve around economic opportunity, public safety, and the rising cost of living. Kast has positioned himself accordingly.
Kast now will deliver on his political mandate or lose it in short order. He enters office facing a divided National Congress, with an evenly split Senate and a lower house where the populist Party of the People holds the balance.
But the new president’s other key challenge may come from outside Chile.
Chile has long been a key American ally in the region, a reliable partner in an otherwise fractious hemisphere. Yet even this reliable partner is now deeply intertwined with China.
Beijing is Chile’s largest trading partner, absorbing close to 40% of the country’s total exports. Bilateral trade reached nearly $57 billion in 2023. Chinese companies account for roughly two-thirds of Chile’s power distribution. The presence of Chinese firms in Chilean business grew by 1,300% over just seven years. China imports 74.1% of all Chilean copper exports and 72% of its lithium exports. Chile is the world’s largest copper producer and second-largest lithium producer.
This entanglement illustrates how thoroughly Washington abandoned Latin America to Chinese commercial diplomacy over the past two decades. That Chile, of all countries, is deeply enmeshed with Beijing tells the story of neglect by the United States.
Kast must now decide on the future of the controversial Chile-China Express, a $500 million fiber-optic cable project backed by China Mobile that connects Valparaiso to Hong Kong.
The project drew fierce American opposition, as Washington revoked the visas of three Chilean officials involved in the concession. The U.S. ambassador warned the project could trigger a review of intelligence-sharing arrangements.
Kast seized on the controversy, halting presidential transition talks with Boric and signaling alignment with Washington. He attended Trump’s “Shield of the Americas” summit in Miami days before his inauguration. How Kast will proceed, however, is yet to be seen.
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The cable may have become a litmus test, but the underlying economic architecture remains intact. Washington is now reasserting influence in a region it largely ignored, defining Latin America as central to U.S. power and urging countries to pick a side.
America may be back in the hemisphere, yet it arrives mostly with sticks and fewer carrots. If Washington expects to reclaim allies it left to Chinese courtship for a generation, it will need to offer something beyond ultimatums.