Are Basic Democratic Standards Possible in Chile?
from the presidential candidates of November 16, 2025
By Andres Kogan Valderrama
HAVANA TIMES – The recent statements by Evelyn Matthei, declaring the coup d’état in Chile and the deaths during the early years of the dictatorship as inevitable, as well as those by Jeannette Jara, defending the totalitarian regime in Cuba, reveal the delusional mindset of certain political sectors in Chile, incapable of upholding even the most basic democratic principles.
This is taking place in the context of Chile’s upcoming presidential election on November 16, where both aspire to become the highest authority of the State. That makes their statements even more serious, as they fall far short of the dignity required for such a role and blatantly disregard basic human rights—regardless of their claims that their words were taken out of context.
In Evelyn Matthei’s case, by suggesting that the 1973 Chilean coup was inevitable, along with the crimes that followed under the dictatorship, she once again demonstrates that a large portion of the Chilean right remains deeply Pinochetist, with no real interest in reflecting on the horrors that were committed.
As for Jeannette Jara, by denying that Cuba is a dictatorship and claiming it simply has a different kind of democracy, she reveals that Chile’s Communist Party continues to show indifference toward the reality of a totalitarian regime and a one-party system that still controls every aspect of life on the island today.
The truth is, listening to their justifications for dictatorship highlights their inconsistency, as they attempt to defend the indefensible—legitimizing tyrants and the brutal concentration of power that has led to thousands of persecutions, imprisonments, acts of torture, and deaths of political opponents in both Chile and Cuba.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise—but certainly cause great concern, that neither Matthei nor Jara is capable of offering even minimal criticism of what has occurred in Chile and Cuba respectively, despite the overwhelming evidence of systematic human rights violations in both countries.
Of course, bringing this up is never enough, since they always blame someone else to justify a dictatorship, whether it’s Salvador Allende’s government in the case of Evelyn Matthei, or the US economic embargo against Cuba in the case of Jeannette Jara.
What’s even worse is that there are presidential candidates with even more extreme positions than those of Matthei and Jara, such as Johannes Kaiser, Jose Antonio Kast, and Eduardo Artes, who openly idolize tyrants without any shame or hesitation.
While Johannes Kaiser and Jose Antonio Kast defend Pinochet’s legacy, Eduardo Artes does the same with Stalin, something straight out of a horror movie and utterly unacceptable given everything we know about their human rights abuses.
Faced with such a discouraging presidential landscape in Chile, rife with denialism from both the right and the left, we must once again demand that all candidates meet basic democratic standards—because fanaticism and cruelty still have a strong grip on the country.