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Overview
- José Antonio Kast unveiled his cabinet in Santiago, selecting Fernando Barros for Defense and Fernando Rabat for Justice and Human Rights as he prepares to take office on March 11.
- Barros, 68, will oversee the Defense Ministry, and Rabat, 53, will lead the Justice and Human Rights portfolio.
- Both previously represented Augusto Pinochet, with Barros leading the former dictator’s legal defense during his 1998 detention in London and Rabat working on cases involving alleged diversion of public funds, the Riggs case, and Operation Colombo.
- Sixteen associations representing families of the detained-disappeared and executed condemned the appointments, calling them an offense to victims’ memory and warning about the Justice ministry’s role in memory policies and pardons.
- Kast, a Pinochet admirer who won decisively on a hardline security and immigration platform, framed his cabinet as a “government of emergency” focused on crime and economic recovery, while the dictatorship’s legacy includes more than 3,200 people killed or disappeared and tens of thousands tortured or imprisoned.