Chileans vote today between two presidential candidates: one that could be the most radical leftist since Salvador Allende or another easily as reactionary as far-right dictator Augusto Pinochet.

The outcome of this contest’s stark contrast between left-wing Gabriel Boric of the Social Convergence Party and José Antonio Kast of the Republican Party — a name inspired by the United States’ GOP — will have impacts beyond Chile. The viability of Chile’s major recent upheavals against neoliberalism, including the social uprising in 2019 that sparked the election of a constituent assembly to replace the dictatorship-era constitution, is being tested in this race. Whichever side wins will likely carry momentum into upcoming regional elections elsewhere in Latin America, like Colombia’s and Brazil’s presidential contests next year.

The two second-round presidential candidates are both out of the Chilean mainstream and in relatively new political parties, but the similarities end there. Boric is a thirty-five-year-old former student leader who rose to prominence during the Chilean Winter, a 2011–13 youth uprising against neoliberal education reform that culminated in the last decade with him and other young leftists in the Frente Amplio (Broad Front) coalition winning congressional office alongside more historic left parties. Boric’s coalition, Apruebo Dignidad (Approve Dignity) has deep ties to popular movements new and old.