A new wave of right-wing governments are deepening ties with Israel across Latin America, overturning the “pink tide” that drove foreign policy in solidarity with Palestine in the continent for many years.
In few places is this more surprising than Chile, home to the largest Palestinian community outside of the Arab world and North Africa.
President Jose Antonio Kast was elected in December following a campaign centred on countering immigration, bolstering national security and cutbacks on public spending.
An admirer of Chile’s notorious dictator Augusto Pinochet, his rhetoric mirrors that of Argentina’s chainsaw-wielding Javier Milei, El Salvador’s millennial dictator Nayib Bukele, and Donald Trump, whose approach to US hegemony in the Americas has been dubbed the “Donroe Doctrine” by various observers.
Alongside newly-elected leaders in Bolivia, Costa Rica and Honduras, Kast’s adherence to this new right-wing order includes a haste to renew relations with Israel, despite its genocidal war in the occupied Gaza Strip.
