From Bachelet to Vargas Llosa: Who is supporting Chile’s presidential candidates?

Santiago – They are the most antagonistic candidates in a presidential election since the return to democracy in Chile. After triumphing in the first round on November 21, Gabriel Boric and José Antonio Kast have added support from different sectors. None of the candidates exceeded 30% of the votes in the last elections, so each support is significant to boost their campaigns.

The former president of Chile and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, this week publicly endorsed the Broad Front candidate, Boric, which was celebrated by the Chilean left and reproached by the right. But the senior official is not the only person of international relevance who has given her support to some of the applicants to the Palacio de La Moneda.

SEE MORE: Who is Gabriel Boric, the Chilean candidate who worries the markets?

Kast even undertook a surprise trip to the United States at the end of November, where held a meeting with Republican Senator Marco Rubio. According to the leader of the Republican Party of Chile, at his meeting he addressed “different issues of international interest” for what could be “the future” of the country.

SEE MORE: Who is José Antonio Kast, the ultra-conservative who wants to reach La Moneda?

Shy shoulders and others open, Bloomberg Line highlights the reasons of relevant figures to lean towards any of the presidential candidates that will be measured this Sunday.

Former Uruguayan President José “Pepe” Mujica addressed a message to Chilean voters a month ago: “Boric matters not only because he has young skinHe has the courage to have a utopia, to think of a better world ”. His official endorsement of the standard-bearer of Approve Dignity was done through a video, used in the electoral strip of the Chilean candidate, in which he appears driving a tractor in a field. “Cultivate hope, do not cultivate hatred, do not cultivate fanaticism,” he stressed.

The candidate thanked the former president for inspiring him to “work with humility, always for and for the people,” and described him as an example in Latin American politics. By October they had already met online.

Last week Leopoldo López, a former political prisoner in the government of Nicolás Maduro, visited Chile to meet with Kast. The leader of the Popular Will party made controversial statements where he compared the constituent processes of Chile and Venezuela. “I see many similarities with what happened in Venezuela 20 years ago. When a Constituent Assembly was presented as the solution to all problems (…) and the Constituent Assembly was really a Trojan horse to undermine democracy from within, ”he said in an interview with Emol.

His statements were rejected by sectors of the left and the president of the Convention, Elisa Loncón, who assured that the drafting of the new Fundamental Charter of Chile had “nothing to do with Venezuela.”

But Kast assured that López “comes from that future”, the Chavista governments, to which the Chileans do not want to go. “That is a future of dictatorship, it is a future of repression, and we want a future of freedom, entrepreneurship and growth for our nation, “he concluded.

When several center-left militants were undecided about supporting Boric, former President Ricardo Lagos took a step forward. “What I am, what my history is, my past, obviously at this juncture I have to say Boric,” said the former Chilean president.

Lagos was one of the key figures of the Concertation of Parties for Democracy, a coalition of leftist collectives that ruled Chile for two decades after the military dictatorship. The support was a relief for Boric, representative of a pact that includes the Communist Party, critical of the governments of the former Concertation. “I think my duty is to listen to those who have experience in this, learn both from their successes and their mistakes,” said the candidate in his last debate.

The Nobel Prize in Literature, Mario Vargas Llosa, gave his support to Kast after he prevailed in the first round. “What about Chile is absolutely fundamental for Latin America. The eyes of all of Latin America are focused on Chile today. So i think there is no alternative but to win the elections“Said the Peruvian writer in a conversation via Zoom with the right-wing.

Vargas Llosa stressed that this election would be “final” for Chile and that “no socialist or communist country has come forward.” At the end of the conversation with Kast he said: “May we win the elections!”

The author of the House of Spirits and other recognized works, Isabel Allende, heads the list of 40 National Awards of Chile that signed a letter a week ago to support the candidacy of the deputy of the Broad Front. “In our opinion, it is candidate Gabriel Boric who has demonstrated leadership skills and the character of a statesman when facing critical moments with temperance and determination, and building bridges with the most diverse sectors in a spirit of dialogue and inclusion, ”says the document.

Allende, winner of the 2010 National Literature Prize, has also recently demanded an end to the repression in Cuba. His works have been translated into 42 languages ​​and he has sold more than 75 million copies worldwide.

A few days ago Mauricio Macri, former president of Argentina, traveled to Santiago in his role as president of the FIFA Foundation, meeting with Chilean president Sebastián Piñera. It was during that visit that he claimed not to know Kast, but that “he senses that he will try to govern on the same lines as President Piñera” and the former Concertation.

The former head of state said that Chile is the only “first world” country in Latin America. “It has been very successful in building, developing, establishing its institutions that have allowed them to reduce poverty and generate more inclusion year after year (…) Building takes a long time as it took you, more than 30 years, and destroying can be done in a very short time”, He specified.

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