The elected president of Chile, the far-right José Antonio Kast, announced on Tuesday his future cabinet of ministers, a team with little political experience, made up of 13 men and 11 women, mostly without party affiliation and linked to the private sector, and among whom there are two former lawyers for General Augusto Pinochet (1973-1990). "We are going to recover and rebuild Chile," said the ultra-Catholic former deputy, who will succeed the progressive Gabriel Boric on March 11. The announcement took place at a sober ceremony—due to mourning for the 20 dead in the recent fires in the central-south zone—held in the capital's offices where Kast set up after winning the elections in December with 58% of the vote. Most of the names had been leaked in recent days, except for that of Security, one of the most important portfolios, as Kast promised to make the fight against crime and irregular migration one of his banners. The post, the first to be announced, will be held by Trinidad Steinert, until now prosecutor for the Tarapaca region (on the northern border) and known for securing convictions for members of the Venezuelan-origin gang Tren de Aragua. "This government is going to regain control of our territory and our borders," Kast assured. Finance will be another key portfolio and will be led by Jorge Quiroz, the ultraliberal economist who devised another of Kast's campaign promises: a mega fiscal cut of $6,000 million in 18 months without touching social benefits. The shadow of Pinochet and big business Father of nine children, Kast will become the first far-right president and the first pinochetist to come to power since the return of democracy. Although during the campaign he avoided at all costs showing his sympathy for the regime—unlike his other attempts to reach La Moneda—and speaking about possible pardons for military convicted of crimes against humanity, two of the appointments on Tuesday have raised fears among human rights organizations. These are the lawyers Fernando Rabat (Justice and Human Rights) and Fernando Barros (Defense), who at different times were part of Pinochet's defense team. "The appointments of Barros and Rabat reflect his negationist policy on human rights," EFE was told by the president of the Association of Relatives of Politically Executed, Alicia Lira. One of Kast's objectives is to recover investment and for this he has turned to big business. For Foreign Relations, he chose Francisco Pérez Mackenna, outside the diplomatic world and who until now was general manager of Quiñenco, one of the firms of Andrónico Luksic, one of the great fortunes of Chile. He also appointed an executive to jointly head the ministries of Economy and Mining: Daniel Mas, current vice president of the Confederation of Production and Commerce (CPC), the main business association in the country. Few politicians The ultra-Catholic former deputy, 59 years old, reserved few ministries for members of his own party, the Republican, and for the traditional right-wing political formations that supported him in the December runoff (UDI, Renovación Nacional and Evópoli).
