Daniel Kressel is a Minerva Stiftung fellow at the Free University of Berlin’s Institute for Latin American Studies. His upcoming book, Hispanic Technocracy: Turning Fascism into Catholic Authoritarianism in Spain, Argentina, and Chile, explores the early phases of Latin America’s neoliberal turn.
Chileans have long known about Colonia Dignidad, a German colony in Chile depicted in the Netflix series A Sinister Sect whose settlers committed countless acts of pedophilia, murder, and torture. Less discussed: the Chilean right’s complicity in those crimes.
Far-right candidate José Antonio Kast casts today’s Chilean election as a battle to save “sacred property rights.” His campaign’s insistence that neoliberal dogmas belong to an unshakeable national essence highlights the antidemocratic impulses at the heart of the Chilean right.