BUENOS AIRES, Argentina—Javier Milei’s landmark election as president of Argentina might prove to be a turning point in the dominance of leftist governments in Latin America. Some are hoping it goes beyond.
“He’s starting a revolution that begins here, is going to go through America, all the way to the north and then on to Europe,” Lilia Lemoine, a newly elected congresswoman in Argentina and longtime Milei ally, told The Epoch Times at Mr. Milei’s inauguration on Dec. 10.
Mr. Milei, a libertarian and self-described “anarcho-capitalist,” has bucked the left-wing grip that, by the beginning of 2023, held all nations in the Americas except Uruguay, Paraguay, El Salvador, and Ecuador.
“Just like the fall of the Berlin Wall marks the end of a tragic era for this world, this election marks the turning point of our history,” Mr. Milei said in his inaugural address.
Brazilian lawmaker Cristiano Caporezzo called Mr. Milei’s election “absolutely historic.”
“It marks a very strategic moment for Latin America, a right-wing ’reconquering' of the continent,” Mr. Caporezzo told The Epoch Times.
“Milei’s arrival in Argentina will give the Chilean elections some strength. More countries in Latin America will start walking toward conservatism.”
Sen. María Fernanda Cabal of Colombia also attended Mr. Milei’s inauguration in Buenos Aires on Dec. 10.
“He today gave us hope, in Latin America, also in the U.S. and worldwide,” she told The Epoch Times.
“What we see is that Javier Milei has opened the door and all these governments that have been ruling, societies that have been suffering with all these activists that go against the nature of human beings ... currently, everything is going to turn right,” Ms. Cabal said.
“We hope that [former President Donald] Trump wins. We hope that Jose Antonio Kast in Chile wins, and we hope that we can save Colombia, too.”
Ernesto Araújo, former minister of foreign relations of Brazil, now a strategic aid for international affairs at Spain-based think tank Fundación Disenso, told The Epoch Times he sees a global shift toward conservatism.
“This can be a true ’reconquest' of freedom worldwide, which might be starting here in Argentina. I like to think big, and I think this might indeed be the case,” Mr. Araújo said.
“If [the Milei administration’s proposals] work out, people might realize that the ideas of freedom work. That they work in a big country.”
In his first week in office, Mr. Milei slashed nine government ministries, took steps toward strengthening trade partnerships, and prepared to crack down on protests that may arise from upcoming drastic economic measures.
He has promised to reduce government spending and eliminate Argentina’s Central Bank, and he has said he might adopt the U.S. dollar as an official currency. During his campaign, he pledged to replace the public education system with a voucher-based alternative and to move the public health care model to an insurance-based system.
“This new social contract [people voted for] offers us a different country, a country in which the state does not direct our lives, but rather safeguards our rights, a country in which people are held accountable for their actions,” Mr. Milei said during his inaugural speech.
Hermann Tertsch, a Spanish member of the European Parliament, celebrated Mr. Milei’s victory at the inauguration in Buenos Aires on Dec. 10.
“I believe this victory—of the truth—in Argentina is a historical victory, and a victory of enormous repercussions,” Mr. Tertsch told The Epoch Times.
“It’s so important, and it has implications for all of the Americas, and for all of the West—an extremely important turnaround.”
The recent win in the Netherlands by conservative Geert Wilders, leader of the Party for Freedom, has buoyed conservatives in the region. Mr. Wilders won the election but must form a majority coalition with other political parties in order to become prime minister.
“We can, for the first time in the history of the European Parliament, make right-wing politics,” Mr. Terstch said.
“We can stop the monstrosities of the 2030 Agenda, of the green pact, of all their permanent meddling into the livelihood [of people], the liquidation of subsistence that the current European Commission is pushing. This can change. We can change the commission. And then we'll see a difference in Europe.”
The 2030 Agenda is the United Nation’s plan to achieve 17 “sustainable development goals” by the year 2030. The goals include “gender equality,” “responsible consumption and production,” and climate action.
“The green pact” referred to by Mr. Tertsch is the “European Green Deal,” a framework in which European Union countries have committed to achieving “climate neutrality” by 2050.
“We have yielded so much in 50 years, 60 years, that we can yield no more. Now we can only reconquer. And we are in a full reconquest campaign,” Mr. Terstch said.
But conservative and libertarian politics are up against some determined and well-coordinated forces.
“[This] is not just about the economy, this is not just about Argentina’s runaway inflation, it’s not about the fact there’s no growth,” Mr. Araújo said.
“It is also about the matter of narco-trafficking, of organized crime. It is the problem of Latin American organized crime being connected with worldwide organized crime. It is the problem of the China–Russia–Iran totalitarian bloc.”
Socialist administrations across Latin America, particularly the Venezuelan regime, have facilitated or engaged in international drug trafficking and coordinated with Iran, China, and Russia against U.S. interests and regional security for years.
In 2020, the U.S. Department of Justice charged Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and 14 other current and former officials in a “narco-terrorism” conspiracy to “flood” the United States with narcotics.
In February, Irani military ships sanctioned for terrorism docked in Brazil, and in June, a defense deal between Iran and Bolivia bound the two nations closer together.
The Chinese communist regime has been spreading its influence widely in Latin America for years with trade deals, an expanding military presence, and ties to radical leftist groups in the region.
The São Paulo Forum is the hub for leftist groups and political administrations.
Created in 1990 by Brazil’s President Lula da Silva and Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, it united narco-terrorist communist guerrilla groups such as Colombia’s FARC and political parties often in power, including Mexico’s MORENA and Brazil’s Workers Party.
The group’s stated goal is to move the region further left.
The São Paulo Forum inherited a framework of cooperation among left-wing parties that have been coalescing for more than a century with organizations such as the Third Communist International.
The group’s leaders often flaunt anti-U.S. rhetoric and either are authoritarian or condone authoritarianism.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has cooperated increasingly with São Paulo Forum parties, some of which are now in power.
In March 2022, ahead of elections in Brazil and in Colombia, the CCP and the São Paulo Forum held a series of conversations. During a talk, CCP official Sun Yanfeng, affiliated with the China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations and with China’s Ministry of State Security, said he rooted for leftist victories in both countries.
“Then, the main economies of Latin America will be governed by leftist forces, and then, in the future, we'll have bigger spaces for cooperation between the Chinese Communist Party and the São Paulo Forum.”
Six Latin American parties were prominently featured at the conference: the Cuban Communist Party, the Communist Party of Brazil, the Communist Party of Uruguay, the Labor Party of Mexico, the Communist Party of Argentina, and the Communist Party of Chile.
The Communist Party of Brazil and the Communist Party of Chile are now part of the ruling coalitions in their respective countries.
But if anti-communists continue to win in more upcoming elections, it could restrict coordination among dominating socialist administrations, criminal enterprises, and social movements, and it could help curb the drug trade and restrictions to freedom in Latin America.
Karolina Añez, the daughter of imprisoned former Bolivian President Jeanine Añez, said she hopes Mr. Milei will affect the politics in her native country.
“Milei’s victory is a victory against all those who oppose freedom. It is hope for Bolivia, for the politically imprisoned. He’s about to fight for the freedom of all of our countries. It’s a shift, a complete shift, it’s the change of an era, a beacon of light for all of us. And we’re certain he'll do well,” Ms. Añez told The Epoch Times in Buenos Aires.
“Bolivia is living in dark times where all citizens are being persecuted and imprisoned for thinking differently under the regime of the MAS,” she said, referring to the Movement for Socialism Party.
Ms. Añez said her mother is a political prisoner “because she fulfilled her duties, because she was in accordance with democracy” and because she carried out her responsibility to the country.
The MAS, the current dominating political faction in Bolivia, is increasingly tied to Venezuela and Iran. The MAS is a longtime protagonist in the São Paulo Forum.
Across the Pacific
Taiwan is set to hold presidential elections on Jan. 13, 2024.Despite the incumbent Democratic Progressive Party’s position on a number of issues, their leaders have so far proven unwilling to succumb to the CCP’s repeated calls to cede control to Beijing and have instead insisted on growing military deterrence.
The CCP has never ruled Taiwan but claims it as its own. As a major producer of semiconductors essential to modern electronics and also as a strategic natural barrier separating China’s east coast from the open Pacific Ocean, the island nation is a focal point of current geopolitics.
“Even prior to the initiation of hostilities, the PRC would likely deploy personnel into Latin America and other parts of the world to support the wartime collection of intelligence and conduct of special operations. PRC-based companies operating in the region could serve as one logical conduit for hosting and supporting these personnel, as well as any special equipment that they brought in.”
He said Beijing “consistently abuses” agreements it has with foreign ports to support its own military objectives.
A Grassroots Movement
Conservatives and right-wing leaders in Ibero-America—comprising Spain, Portugal, and Latin America—established unprecedented dialogue in the run-up to Mr. Milei’s election.“We have for 60 years or 70 years seen conservatives conceding to a domination of the left that occupied all of information, all of education, communications, culture, everything went left with really no resistance, because there wasn’t anything organized against this domination of the totalitarian left—and all of it is totalitarian,” Mr. Tertsch said.
“But now there is something.”
In the European Parliament, Mr. Tertsch is the vice chair of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group and a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee.
He is a leading figure in Foro Madrid, along with his Vox Party in Spain. Foro Madrid is an international grassroots organization to foster dialogue and coordination among those in favor of the “defense of freedom, democracy, and the rule of law.”
“We’re fighting for nations and free beings, for a comeback, a recovery of their values, and to make a difference—the reconquest of a free West, for people to be free, to really break away of this project to make us all slaves,” Mr. Tertsch said.
Foro Madrid held regional conferences in Latin America in 2022 and 2023.
Ms. Cabal, the Colombian senator, said conservatives need to stick together.
“We have to get along, all of us together, as the left does for evil. We have to do it to save our countries,” she said.
“Because through experience, we understood that just when we split out, the left has a chance, and we have broken our unity with some groups. We have facilitated for them to get in.
“We have made mistakes, and today we can not [anymore]. We don’t have time to make any other mistake, because when they get into power, they are some of the worst.”
The U.S.-based Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) is also broadening its reach overseas.
Promoted by the CPAC Foundation, previously called the American Conservative Union, it describes itself as “the nation’s oldest conservative grassroots organization and seeks to preserve and protect the values of life, liberty, and property for every American.”
Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the son of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, has helped to bring CPAC events to Brazil since 2019.
Australia, Hungary, Japan, Mexico, and South Korea have also hosted CPAC events since 2017.
Mr. Bolsonaro said he is hoping President Trump wins in 2024.
“Then the good wind is bound not only for the southern cone, but also for the whole region,” he told The Epoch Times.
Upcoming Elections
Chile held a constitutional referendum on Dec. 17. The country previously voted for a new constitution, then rejected a hard-left one presented by officials.According to Chilean law, after the decision to change the constitution is made, new proposals will have to be presented until one is approved. Conservatives have now secured a majority in the group writing the proposed new constitution, and Chile will vote on whether to adopt their draft.
The country also has a presidential election in November 2025.
El Salvador has general elections in February 2024, with Panama following suit in May, Mexico in June, and Uruguay in October. Conservatives won Paraguay’s presidential election in April.
On the other side of the Atlantic, the European Parliament will hold elections in June 2024 and Germany in October 2025.
