“Chile has become the latest country in Latin America to veer toward the right, electing a deeply conservative veteran politician who has long attracted comparisons to Donald Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president-elect, Jos\u00e9 Antonio Kast, has expressed nostalgia for the 17-year military dictatorship of the late Gen. Augusto Pinochet, opposed the legalization of same-sex marriage and advocated in recent years for a constitutional ban on abortion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
…<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Kast, 59, won a landslide victory by tapping into a deep well of resentment at the status quo in a country whiplashed by an unprecedented rise in organized crime and disappointed by the great expectations that President Gabriel Boric raised but will leave unfulfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Experts say this reflects the pervasive anti-incumbent mood that has gripped South America and, significantly, boosted the radical right at time when Trump is seeking to influence the region\u2019s political future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s a dramatic turn from only two decades ago, when the commodities boom brought to power the so-called \u201cpink tide\u201d of left-wing leaders, like the late socialist icon Hugo Ch\u00e1vez, who whipped up voters by railing against U.S. imperialism and vowing to redistribute their nations\u2019 wealth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe last decade, it\u2019s been rough,\u201d said Steven Levitsky, a Harvard political scientist. \u201cAnd the people who get blamed for stagnant economies, rising crime \u2014 or, at least, rising perceptions of crime \u2014 and not insignificant corruption are those who\u2019ve been in power, and that\u2019s the left.\u201d”<\/p>\n\n\n\n