Even as the votes were still being tallied for Chile’s first-round presidential election, the mood on the Left was a mixture of confusion, apprehension, and, as the results were confirmed, dismay. Not only had they not swept the contest as predicted; their candidate Gabriel Boric took second place behind far-right outsider politician José Antonio Kast.

The Left could be forgiven for thinking it was swimming with the currents of history. The November 21 general elections took place, after all, with memory still fresh of the country’s massive 2019 popular revolt, basking in the glow of the overwhelming 2020 “Apruebo” vote in favor of the Constituent Assembly, and, most recently, following the election of a left-majority Constitutional Convention, composed of social movement leaders, environmentalists, feminists, and indigenous and left-wing militants.

How, then, was it possible that an ultra-reactionary like Kast — a man who, at least rhetorically, positions himself to the right of former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet — emerged as the first-round winner and could even, by some initial counts, have one foot in the presidential office?