In a controversial move, Chile’s incoming far-right president, José Antonio Kast, has named Judith Marín, a vehement opponent of abortion, as the country’s new women and gender equality minister. Marín, a 30-year-old evangelical Christian, has publicly decried bills to decriminalise abortion and has expressed her support for “life from conception to natural death”.
Kast, a Catholic father of nine children, has also been a staunch opponent of abortion throughout his political career. His decision to appoint Marín to the gender equality portfolio has raised concerns among progressive and women’s rights advocates in the country.
Marín, who was once ejected from Chile’s Senate for screaming “return to the Lord” during a vote to decriminalise abortion under restricted circumstances, has a history of defending the “natural family” and questioning the future of the ministry she will now lead.
The incoming president’s cabinet, which includes 13 men and 11 women with an average age of 54, is mostly drawn from the right and far-right political spectrum, with limited representation of centrist voices. Two of Kast’s ministers, Fernando Barros and Fernando Rabat, have previously represented the former dictator Augusto Pinochet in legal cases.
Kast, who won the presidency in December after three previous attempts, is a known supporter of Pinochet and has campaigned to keep the former dictator in power before a 1988 referendum on the continuation of the dictatorship. His decision to appoint Marín, a staunch opponent of abortion rights, as the gender equality minister has been met with concern and criticism from progressive and women’s rights groups in Chile.
