These are difficult times for the Chilean right, trapped in a past it cannot escape, and which is coming to the fore in the run-up to the presidential elections in November this year. Its three main candidates, known as the “German division” because of their German ancestry—Evelyn Matthei, José Antonio Kast, and Johannes Kaiser—share an unconditional attachment to the military dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet. Although one of them, Matthei, has slightly qualified her position on the human rights violations committed by the armed forces, all three justify the 1973 coup that overthrew the legitimate government of President Salvador Allende, betraying their oath to uphold the constitution and the president of the republic.

None of the three candidates refers to the assassinations in Chile and abroad of former army commander-in-chief General Carlos Prats and his wife in Buenos Aires, former Foreign Minister Orlando Letelier and his American assistant in Washington, or the illicit enrichment and millions of dollars stolen by Pinochet and hidden under false names in various banks in the United States.

Will the turbulent past of Pinochet's 17-year dictatorship have an impact on the upcoming presidential elections on November 16? We do not know, but never in the elections since 1989 until the last one in 2011 have candidates who supported the dictatorship been able to win: neither Hernán Büchi, nor Arturo Alessandri, nor Joaquín Lavín, nor several others, nor those who are trying for the second time, such as Evelyn Matthei and José Antonio Kast. Much will depend on the election campaign that will begin in the coming weeks, on the debates between the candidates, and, of course, on social media. The truth is that a large part of the current electorate was not even born in 1973, the year of the coup.

There seems to be a hidden sense of guilt and shame in Chilean society, underlying the collective unconscious because of the magnitude and horror of the crimes and looting, along with what thousands of families experienced and continue to experience, not knowing the fate of their loved ones who were detained and disappeared. The stories that continue to emerge of acts of barbarism, evil, and cruelty against entire families murdered, women abused and tortured or thrown into the sea, added to the deaths in torture centers run by the armed forces, are a stain on the army and on the pages of Chile's history that have not yet been written.

In 2010, for the first time in 52 years, the right wing won the presidential elections with Sebastián Piñera. The last right-wing president had been elected in 1958, Jorge Alessandri. Unlike today's candidates from the “German division,” the twice-elected president was an outspoken opponent of the Pinochet dictatorship. He voted against the dictator when he wanted to remain in power indefinitely and also denounced much of the right wing when he called them “passive accomplices” of the dictatorship, who did nothing to prevent human rights violations.

Piñera wanted to build a new right wing, free of guilt, distancing it from its conservative values that until a few years ago opposed the recognition of children born out of wedlock, women's economic autonomy, divorce, abortion on three grounds, and same-sex marriage.

The former president partially succeeded in creating the embryo of a liberal right wing that seeks to leave behind the so-called “caveman right,” as the recently deceased Nobel Prize winner Mario Vargas Llosa defined Chile's conservative forces. However, today they are all still there, together, hoping to win the presidency with one of their candidates, with regressive agendas in terms of culture, values, and social rights, deploying economic resources in the campaign and, above all, avoiding talking about the past, about the dictatorship they enthusiastically supported.

On the other side, in the center-left, primary elections will be held on June 29 to select a single candidate from the sector. There is also debate within part of the left when it comes to Nicaragua, Venezuela, or the Cuban political system due to its lack of democracy and freedom. The Communist Party candidate, Jeannette Jara, pointed out that Cuba has a “different democratic system,” which was elaborated on by the secretary general, who clarified that the Cuban regime was an “advanced democracy,” definitions that were largely rejected by the other candidates.

Another left-wing candidate in the running, Gonzalo Winter, the “fourth German,” heir to President Boric, aged 38, has also made contradictory statements on sensitive issues such as compulsory voting, degrees of autonomy for the Mapuche people, and criticism of the government's progress, which is shared mainly by young sectors that support him. Jaime Mulet, a candidate with a regionalist discourse from a small party seeking political space, is also running.

Today, the candidate representing “democratic socialism” is Carolina Tohá, who continues to grow and receive support from other groups. She leads the center-left candidates in the polls and seems to be consolidating her victory thanks to her knowledge and solid proposals, her broad vision of the future, her calmness and confidence in facing criticism, and her temperance in tackling the major challenges she will face if she is elected president.

The real race will begin on the night of June 29, when the results of the primary elections are announced, and we will know who from the center-left will face the representatives of the Pinochetist right in the November elections, which failed to reach an agreement to choose a single candidate in the primary elections. Fearing a victory for Carolina Tohá, if she is elected as the center-left candidate, one or perhaps two of the right-wing candidates will probably withdraw in order to prevent another victory of the progressive forces.