Chile’s new president has praised Pinochet, a dictator. What does it mean?

Experts say the views of newly inaugurated president Jose Antonio Kast reflect deep dissatisfaction with the status quo.

It was a symbol hiding in plain sight. On February 24, two weeks before his inauguration as Chile’s president, Jose Antonio Kast unveiled his official portrait.

The photo showed the 60-year-old leader wearing a blue suit, the presidential sash and a conspicuous coat of arms stitched in the middle.

It was conspicuous, because no president since the fall of Augusto Pinochet in 1990 had posed with the coat of arms on the sash. The last leader to do so was Pinochet himself.

For critics, the crest was another expression of Kast’s professed affinity for the former hardline leader.

But as Kast is sworn into office on Wednesday, analysts question whether his embrace of Pinochet is nostalgia for Latin America’s past dictatorships — or whether it is simply a sign of frustration with the status quo.