Augusto Pinochet’s 1973-1990 dictatorship and raise taxes on the “super rich” to expand social services, fight inequality and boost protections of the environment.
Kast, who has a history of defending Chile’s past military dictatorship, finished ahead of Boric by two points in the first round of voting last month but failed to secure a majority of votes.
Boric was able to reverse the difference by a larger margin than pre-election opinion polls forecast by expanding beyond his base in the capital, Santiago, and attracting voters in rural areas who don’t side with political extremes.
Kast, 55, a devout Roman Catholic and father of nine, emerged from the far right fringe after having won less than 8% of the vote in 2017.
As a lawmaker he has a record of attacking Chile’s LGBTQ community and advocating more restrictive abortion laws.
But while Kast made a lightning trip to Washington, where he met with Republican Sen.
In addition, the political rules could soon change because a newly elected convention is rewriting the country’s Pinochet-era constitution.