The Albany Gazette - Chile president picks Pinochet lawyers as ministers of human rights, defense

Kast will be sworn in on March 11 as the first far-right head of state in Chile since the exit of Pinochet, whose brutal regime left deep scars on the South American nation.

Pinochet led a dictatorship from 1973 to 1990 that left more than 3,200 dead or missing, and tortured or imprisoned tens of thousands more.

Kast, a Pinochet admirer who won a landslide election victory last December, announced "a great team for difficult times," including Fernando Barros, 68, as his defense minister and Fernando Rabat, 53, as minister of justice and human rights.

Both were members of Pinochet's legal team.

Barros led Pinochet's defense while he was detained in London in 1998 at the request of the Spanish courts, which sought his extradition to try him for crimes against humanity.

Rabat represented Pinochet in a case of embezzlement of public funds.

Pinochet died in 2006 at the age of 91 without being convicted on any of the charges.

"This cabinet is not the result of quotas, calculations or pressure. It is the result of a deep conviction and a common vocation: to always put Chile first," said Kast at a ceremony in Santiago where he unveiled his cabinet.

- Right-wing victory -

Kast was elected on a wave of anti-crime and anti-immigrant sentiment.

Polls showed more than 60 percent of Chileans thought security was the top issue facing the country, and Kast beat a leftist candidate despite being to the right of most Chileans on many social issues, including abortion.

Shortly after his election, however, he vowed to lead a government of "national unity."

"This is not one person's or one party's government. It will be broader to achieve consensus on fundamental issues," he said in December, days after securing the election victory.

While Chilean voters are often asked to choose between radical left and right alternatives, the country has proven itself to be centrist.

Chileans have alternated between left and right governments at every election since 2010.

Media investigations have revealed Kast's German-born father was a member of Adolf Hitler's Nazi party and a soldier during World War II.

He insists his father was a forced conscript and did not support the Nazis.

Kast's election win confirmed a right-wing lurch in Latin America, following victories for the right in Argentina, Bolivia, Honduras, El Salvador and Ecuador.

(T.Brown--TAG)