Kast will be sworn in on March 11 as the first far-right head of state in Chile since the exit of Pinochet, whose brutal regime has left deep scars on the South American nation.

Pinochet led a dictatorship from 1973 to 1990 that left more than 3,200 dead or missing and tortured or imprisoned tens of thousands more.

Kast, a Pinochet admirer who won a landslide election victory last December, announced “a great team for difficult times,” including Fernando Barros, 68, as his defense minister and Fernando Rabat, 53, as minister of justice and human rights.

Both were members of Pinochet’s legal team.

Kast was elected on a wave of anti-crime and anti-immigrant sentiment.

Polls showed more than 60% of Chileans thought security was the top issue facing the country, and Kast beat a leftist candidate despite being to the right of most Chileans on many social issues, including abortion.

Media investigations have revealed Kast’s German-born father was a member of Adolf Hitler’s Nazi party and a soldier during World War II.

He insists his father was a forced conscript.