A fork in the road? Chilean foreign policy under Piñera, one year on
LSE BLOG
Ideology or pragmatism? A break with the past, or its continuation? This was the fork in the road that Chilean foreign policy faced in March 2010 when Sebastián Piñera, the country’s first rightwing president since the end of the military regime under Augusto Pinochet, took office. A year on and following Piñera’s first anniversary in power which coincided with US President Barack Obama’s recent visit to Chile, the jury still appears to be out regarding which direction the Chilean government is taking.
On the one hand, it would seem that Chile under Piñera is following a new path that may be emerging for the ‘new right’ in Latin America – especially after nearly a decade when much of the region has been governed by the left. On the other hand, there is much in Piñera’s foreign policy to date that suggests the new Latin American right may not be all that different from the left.
