The Return of Trump Influences Politics in Latin America
with his anti-rights agenda
The rise of the far-right is key to understanding agendas pushed by figures aiming to break with current international models & understanding
By Francisca Castillo (El Mostrador)
HAVANA TIMES – The executive orders issued by Donald Trump upon his return to the White House have revived the debate over the rise of the far-right as a global phenomenon, its expressions in Latin America under figures like Javier Milei (Argentina), and the potential impact on democracies in the region.
“The great anvil that appears as a common denominator in countries and institutions that are failing is the mental virus of woke ideology. This is the great epidemic of our time that must be cured, it is the cancer that must be extracted.” With these words, Argentina’s president, Javier Milei, spoke at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos this week, where world leaders, businesspeople, and heads of civil society meet globally.
On this occasion, Milei accused Davos and international organizations of being “ideologists of barbarism that threaten the West.” He also railed against the political class and the “aberrant idea of social justice.” Additionally, he criticized feminism and its “search for privileges,” questioning concepts such as “femicide,” which he argued implies “that a woman’s life is worth more than a man’s.” He also called environmentalism “sinister,” linked flags of sexual diversity with pedophilia, and defended Elon Musk against criticism over his recent “Nazi salute.”
This strident rhetoric comes amid a meeting marked by higher levels of uncertainty in 2025 due to geopolitical tensions, economic fragmentation, and the acceleration of climate change, as highlighted by its president, Børge Brende.
Moreover, the start of the meeting coincided with Donald Trump’s inauguration for his second term as president of the United States. On this occasion, he announced his first executive actions, which became a major topic of discussion at the event, particularly those related to international trade, migration, and the US withdrawal from key international organizations like the World Heath Organization.
This new edition of the World Economic Forum also reflects the ongoing dispute between “sovereigntists and globalists,” and how geopolitical decisions are in tension between those seeking protectionism and those who believe in multilateral mechanisms to address contemporary world problems.
In this context, the rise of the far-right globally is key to understanding the agendas pushed by figures aiming to break with current paradigms of international understanding.
“Throughout this year, I’ve been able to find allies in this fight for freedom ideas in all corners of the planet. (…) Slowly, an international alliance has been formed by all those nations that want to be free and believe in the ideas of freedom,” the Argentine president highlighted in his speech.
While a decade ago, the debate over the far-right was seen from Latin America as a phenomenon primarily rooted in Europe, figures like Donald Trump, Jair Bolsonaro in Brazil in 2018, Nayib Bukele in El Salvador, and Javier Milei in Argentina reveal that this phenomenon must be viewed as a global current.
As a result, academic studies have increased to understand why the far-right seems to be gaining ground and to reflect on its potential impact on Latin American democracies.
Trump and the beacon for the far-right agenda
Immediately after taking office, Donald Trump wasted no time in asserting his ambition to implement immediate and radical changes in his second term. On his first day in the White House, he signed 78 executive orders, enacting anti-migration measures, actions against sexual diversity, and the reversal of Joe Biden’s policies, including those targeting changes in the energy matrix, among other issues.
“Unlike his first term, this time Trump has experience governing, which means he now has much more knowledge about how to implement his ideas. Practically, this translates to his first decisions showing a greater ability to move the political agenda in the direction he desires. The vast majority of the signed decrees clearly demonstrate a far-right agenda that will test the strength of United States’ institutions and have a significant international impact,” said Cristobal Rovira, an academic from the Catholic University of Chile and expert in far-right politics.
The political scientist added that Trump’s second term in power “is a true blessing for far-right forces globally because they now not only have an ally, but also a model to follow.”
In this regard, the study The Far-Right in Latin America: Local Particularities and Global Connections, written by Rovira, highlights that what distinguishes the “new rights” that have emerged in Latin America recently is that “they stand apart from both the left and conventional right by their deliberate attack on political correctness and criticism of ideas considered progressive.” The author also cites several works illustrating the far-right playbook in recent times.
“Simon Escoffier, Leigh A. Payne, and Julia Zulver argue in their book The Right Against Rights that the far-right should be understood as a new political project defined as ‘a collective institutional and extra-institutional mobilization aiming to control, dismantle or reverse specific rights promoted by previously marginalized communities and groups and restore, promote, or advance a status quo of traditional political, social, economic, and cultural rights,’” the text states.
The Far-Right in Chile and its narrative as elections approach
The above definition helps understand local phenomena in the context of global situations like in Europe, from which concepts such as a radical populist right emerge.
According to research from the ultra-lab project, Laboratory for the Study of the Far-Right, the far-right is mainly defined by three ideological elements: “populism, which divides society into two homogeneous and antagonistic groups, a pure people and a corrupt elite; authoritarianism, which defends a strictly ordered society where violations of authority or any behavior considered ‘deviant’ are not tolerated; and nativism, synonymous with xenophobic nationalism, where the democratic political system must promote only the interests of its citizens, considering foreign ideas and people a threat to the nation-state.”
In Chile, these ideas have been represented by groups like Jose Antonio Kast’s Republican Party and the recently formed National Libertarian Party led by deputy Johannes Kaiser. The latter emerged from dissatisfaction with the Republican Party’s policies, positioning itself as an alternative seeking to capture the electorate from this sector.
“Like other parts of the world, the far-right in Chile is not a homogeneous political field. There are different factions, and internal struggles often arise to position themselves as the most radical force. It is not entirely clear whether these internal conflicts will allow for the creation of a single far-right front, nor how this will affect the relationship with the conventional right. I believe the coming months will reveal how the different rights align for the 2025 parliamentary and presidential elections,” said Cristobal Rovira.
According to the expert, while there is a segment that sympathizes with libertarian ideas, it remains a relatively small group of voters.
“Furthermore, empirical studies for Chile show that rejection rates toward the far-right are quite high (around 60% of the electorate), so there is a clear growth ceiling for the far-right. Far-right leaders in Chile generate blind support in small groups, but widespread rejection in broader segments. Therefore, it is unlikely that the far-right can conquer the Executive Power. However, the far-right exerts considerable influence on the public agenda and impacts the ideas that the conventional right ends up defending,” Rovira added.
First published in Spanish by El Mostrador and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.