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On Sunday, Chileans returned a right-wing leader to power for the first time since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship. Harvard-educated billionaire Sebastian Piñera claimed victory in the South American country’s presidential election by defeating former President and current Senator Eduardo Frei of the center-left Concertacion coalition. Despite the fact that incumbent Michele Bachelet has enjoyed overwhelming approval ratings, her ruling coalition was unable to benefit from the popularity of her term in failing to secure the Presidential election for the first time in twenty years. In Sunday’s run-off election, Piñera claimed 52% of the vote to Frei’s 48% and won in ten of Chile’s fifteen regions. The wealthy investor who ran under a coalition of right-wing parties has promised to be an ‘entrepreneurial President,’ and his victory has already sent Chilean stocks soaring on Monday as they ended on an-time high. During the campaign, Piñera made reassurances to maintain the social safety net created by Concertacion’s reign, but has also stated intentions to partially privatize state-controlled companies including the national copper corporation Codelco. The return of the right-wing to power in Chile has not only posed questions to the political future of Concertacion but also to that of the broader Latin American left which has recently enjoyed a trend of left-leaning electoral victories.

GUEST: Margaret Power, Professor at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and author of “Right Wing Women in Chile.”