Martin Elfman
On November 18th and 19th, a new edition of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) took place in Mexico City. This summit, which has been held in the United States since 1974 and which annually provides a poll that serves as a thermometer to define the toughest Republican candidates, has previously only been held in a single Latin American country: Jair Bolsonaro’s Brazil in 2019, 2021 and 2022.
This year Mexico City has gathered some of the most important international references in space, such as the Americans Steve Bannon and Ted Cruz and the Spaniard Santiago Abascal, as well as representatives of the regional right such as Eduardo Bolsonaro (Brazil), José Antonio Kast (Chile), Alejandro Giammattei (Guatemala) and Javier Milei (Argentina).
A quick reading of Latin America’s new political map can reveal a broad dominance of the left – with many and varied sensibilities – and progressivism, although it hides another reality: the rise of far-right forces across the region. They are not a government, but they could be. She no longer poses this condition as a mere contrast, but as an alternative. Even if they lose elections, they gain sustained weight in their societies.
This new position, which is the result of electoral legitimacy, forces them to change their strategy and discourse. They no longer fuel anti-democratic sentiment in a region where, as shown by the Latinobarómetro, 28% of citizens are indifferent to the type of political regime in which they live, but instead question the tools of that system or its own results . They use democracy to their liking. President Joe Biden warned in his landmark speech in Philadelphia on September 1: “Democracy cannot survive if one side believes that there are only two outcomes in an election: either they win or they were fooled.” That’s it Bet: a Kleenex democracy.
In this sense, during the Mexican summit, for example, Steve Bannon expressed doubts about electronic voting and directly denounced Eduardo Bolsonaro for his father being “deprived of the elections”. With this demonstrated competitiveness – which has brought them to the brink of victory in Brazil and Chile, for example – they choose to stay on the fringes of the system and quarrel with those currently in power. In their opinion, not recognizing the legitimacy of the rival is the first condition for fighting it with a strategy of relentless destruction. This is how they polarize to the maximum and ideologically kidnap their voters. It’s easier to split into nearly equal and unforgiving halves than allow for amplified advances from your rivals.
In a context of extreme polarization – with record levels in the United States and two decades of steady growth in Latin America – these expressions seek to garner representation of conservative sentiments and lead opposition in their countries. For this reason, Eduardo Verástegui, president of the Mexican section of CPAC and host of the event, declared himself a representative of the “true right” and revived the concept of the “cowardly right wing” popularized by Santiago Abascal at the time.
Although they continue to criticize what is politically correct, they eventually begin to put issues on the global agenda. In this sense, former Polish President and Nobel Peace Prize winner Lech Walesa, one of the surprises of the Mexican meeting, pointed out that climate change is a real problem. This strategy, which policy adviser Dick Morris called “triangulation,” consists of adopting an opponent’s idea or proposal in order to challenge their base of support. Some sections of the extreme right seem to understand the electoral limitations of climate denial.
And the Latin American far right wants revenge. In The Age of Authoritarian Leaders, as Gideon Rachman warns in the title of his latest book, its speakers and candidates are no longer the exception but the rule. We are spectators of the rise of a new generation of nationalist, populist and authoritarian leaders, which “makes it more difficult to draw a clear line between the democratic and the authoritarian world,” the Financial Times columnist points out.
The far right in Latin America lost but won. From intense minority to competing actor and possible government alternative. In this period of maturity and legitimacy, he explores international cooperation – technical and political – and redefines its messages to end the subjugation of a traditional right-wing victim of polarization. Latin America is the big stage of this update to revive its nationalist offer, but with deep international connections.
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