Far-right Shift in Chile: New challenges for counter-hegemony in an accelerated global context

On March 11, 2026, Chile underwent a historic turn in its recent political history, transferring power — for the first time since 1990 — to a sector of the right that openly vindicates the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, while simultaneously questioning the achievements and advances of democracy in the areas of historical memory, gender equality, social inclusion, and labor rights, among other critical issues. The political project of the Chilean far-right, led by José Antonio Kast, has been consolidating for nearly a decade. In this complex scenario, the construction of counter-hegemony constitutes a central — indeed, civilizational — challenge, given the character of the leviathan that the defenders of contemporary capitalism have chosen to unleash. Until relatively recently, the left, or if one prefers, progressive movements, were torn between supporting social-democratic projects and their numerous peripheral derivations on the one hand, and driving more radical movements committed to deepening the challenge to neoliberalism on the other — each with its own ideological and identity particularities.