The breakup occurred due to a series of conflicting versions about a Chinese underwater cable project to link Asia with the Chilean coast. On Tuesday, the right-wing president-elect abruptly left La Moneda, accusing the outgoing leftist government of a lack of transparency and contradictions.
According to Kast, the acting president lied in an interview when he stated that he had spoken with him by phone on February 18 about the Chinese project, for which he demanded that he recant. Boric refused to do so and insisted that he called him several times to discuss the issue. It was then that the president-elect ended the meetings between both administrations and the transition broke down.
José Antonio Kast during an electoral rally in Santiago on December 14. Photographer: Tamara Merino/Bloomberg
/ Tamara Merino
In an editorial in the Chilean newspaper “El Mercurio” he points out that what happened not only breaks a republican tradition of collaboration and courtesy in the process of transferring power that has lasted decades, “but above all it contributes to polarization and portends a climate of more political confrontation.”
The discord project has opened a diplomatic dispute with the US, which does not welcome the multinational China Mobile building a fiber optic cable that would link Hong Kong and the Chilean region of Valparaíso.
Although Washington initially warned Santiago about the alleged risks that the submarine cable poses for this part of the hemisphere, it later took more drastic measures and revoked the diplomatic visas of the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Juan Carlos Muñoz, and two other officials after accusing them of “undermining regional security.” The Boric government rejected this measure and assured that the security and sovereignty of Chile is not at risk.
Beyond the diplomatic tension, “El Mercurio” highlights that Boric and his government handled this issue with a lack of transparency and contradictory actions, which was evidenced when it was learned that the Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications had signed a decree granting the concession of the work to the Chinese company, but then, after warnings from US authorities, the document was annulled under the argument of “technical or typing error.”
Chilean political scientist, professor and columnist Patricio Navia explains that Washington was raising the level of warnings to the Boric government. “The US argument is that Chile may be a trading partner of China, but it is a strategic partner of the US,” he says.
The controversy has made it clear that, despite his sympathy for Donald Trump’s United States, Kast will have to maneuver with great care in the face of the political and commercial dispute between Washington and Beijing in the region. After all, China is Chile’s main trading partner.
AT THE TRUMP SUMMIT
- José Antonio Kast will participate today in Miami in the regional summit of leaders organized by Donald Trump. He is the only one of the invited presidents who is not yet officially in office.
- Since winning the elections, Kast has made a tour of international contacts with some of his ideological allies, highlighting his visit to Argentina, El Salvador, among others.
“It’s a problem that Kast is going to have to deal with. What we don’t want is to be left in the middle of the confrontation between the two. Boric got a little closer to China, which was also a problem, but Kast can get very close to the US, and when he gets to La Moneda, Washington is going to ask him for a demonstration of loyalty and Kast has to be very careful not to offend the Chinese,” says Navia.
It will be a thorny path, especially now that Trump wants to increase his country’s influence in Latin America and stop the advance of China. Before leaving for Florida on Thursday, Kast assured that it is not incompatible to have “the best relations” with both China and the United States.
