Links to Brazil help shape presidential campaigns in Chile

SANTIAGO — “Dear Jair, I send you warm greetings from Chile, and wish you a speedy recovery from the infamous attack that you have been subjected to. When I saw the news about the attack, I was deeply shocked by the level of violence and hatred that can arise in politics, and that lead people to commit these unacceptable crimes for the sole purpose of stopping your candidacy.”

This letter, sent in September 2018 to Jair Bolsonaro — the then-frontrunner of the Brazilian presidential election — was penned by far-right outsider Chilean politician José Antonio Kast, who is now days away from potentially winning a presidential vote in his home country.

A month after Mr. Kast’s sympathetic letter, Congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro — the president’s third-eldest son — invited the so-called “Chilean Bolsonaro” to visit his father’s home during the runoff campaign, while Mr. Bolsonaro was convalescent after being stabbed at a public rally.

During their meeting, Mr. Kast asked for cooperation from his counterpart to investigate allegedly illicit campaign financing in Chile by Brazilian construction companies. After Mr. Bolsonaro’s victory, Mr. Kast was jubilant. “I believe that we are getting closer every day to the triumph of an unapologetic right in Chile,” he said. 

Singing from the same hymn sheet

Since then, the relationship between the Brazilian president and the far-right Chilean candidate has grown stronger and more profound....